A one week later from the Sunday, 21st July, the repercussions of the accident in Fungurume are still evident in localities 200 km north of Lubumbashi. A tanker truck manufacturing company from mining industry flipped over and dumped acid in the Kelangile River. The spill has caused the death of a lot of fish and denied that important source of food for that region’s people.
If this interference is to continue the mayor of Fungurume has affected a blanket ban on the consumption of fish from Kelangile River until further notice. Nevertheless, consequences are much wider, as they significantly affect native populations and the environment.
Christian Bwenda, from the environmental NGO PremiCongo in Lubumbashi, highlighted the severity of the situation: “The local population is not connected to a central water supply system, with most of them obtaining water from sources close to water ways; wells. Given that the river is contaminated, the water is water is almost unfit for human and animal consumption.
Still, the prohibition on fishing has not reach everybody. Bwenda further said, “People also use the river water for washing and the river is also filled with fish and people still fish from the river but for those who consume the affected fish, health wise, it is terrible. ”
This is not the first of its kind and sadly it will not be the last. Other similar cases that occurred in the past in the said area have led to pressed the associations of civil society and called on authorities to act on the decontamination of the river.
The recent tanker spill in Fungurume has raised the critical concern of proper environmental measures that need to installed and properly channeling the information to avoid recurrence of such disasters. It is a clear indication that the local ecosystems and communities settled in the region are also suffering the consequences so much that timely and continuous interferences are required.