The Copperbelt Environment Project is a Government of the Republic of Zambia programme, with proceeds from the World Bank and the Nordic Development Fund. The CEP will address environmental liabilities associated with the mining sector that accumulated during more than 80 years of mining.

In 1995, as attention began to focus on the privatisation of ZCCM, one issue that came to the fore was the question of what to do about the environmental degradation that this long period of mining had caused, whose responsibility it was, and how would controls be applied in the future. 

As privatisation progressed, the Zambian Government (GRZ), through ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc (ZCCM-IH), retained responsibility for a wide range of environmental concerns, which were not passed on to the new mine investors.

Thus the concept of an Environment Project for the Copperbelt came about, and the Zambian Government sought financial assistance for the project from the World Bank and the Nordic Development Fund.

The Copperbelt Environment Project (CEP) will assist Government and ZCCM-IH implement a set of mitigation measures to help alleviate environmental and social liabilities that resulted from the ZCCM privatisation process and the closure of the Kabwe Mine, and improve the future compliance of the mining sector with environmental and social regulations.  The principal objectives of the CEP are:

• To protect public health and safety;
• To reduce or prevent environmental degradation; and,
• To encourage productive utilisation of land either for its pre-mining use or, where applicable, for an acceptable alternative use.

Among the main environmental issues to be addressed under the CEP are the stability of various overburden, waste rock, tailings and slag dumps which have changed the Copperbelt landscape and occupy approximately 10,000 hectares of land; soil contamination, and water pollution.

The CEP will also address the socio-economic impacts arising from the privatisation of ZCCM.  This will include promotion of public health and safety through community awareness and education on environmental issues.