African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1434: Chapter 14: Deberne’s Ambition

Kitwe City.

The Kafue River runs through Kitwe City, it is one of the major rivers in what was once Zambia, originating from the mountainous northern Copper Belt of East Africa, eventually flowing through Lusaka City in East Africa and joining the Zambezi River.

Its route coincides with the copper mining belt, especially within East Africa’s Central Province, making this river arguably the most important for what was once Zambia.

In the past, its length, drainage area, and surrounding economy all held significant positions for what was once Zambia, and Kitwe City is situated along the upper reaches of this river.

The upper and middle reaches of the Kafue River have relatively gentle terrain, with numerous tributaries nourishing a large area of land in Central Province, while the lower reaches span nearly twenty kilometers, where the terrain dramatically changes, making water resources very abundant.

However, this has greatly diminished its value for navigation, so the East African Government reshaped the local navigation value through artificial canals, greatly benefiting Kitwe City.

Nevertheless, following Kitwe City’s economic conference, Kitwe City Government has made new decisions regarding the handling of Kafue, the ”Mother River.”

Deberne said, ”The Kafue River is the mother river of Kitwe City, and in the past, due to economic development reasons, our ecological damage to the Kafue River was severe.”

”Primarily, it was the discharge of industrial and domestic wastewater that had a very negative impact on the Kafue River within our jurisdiction.”

”Meanwhile, socio-economic activities along the riverline also negatively impacted the Kafue River, such as overgrazing, rain forest logging, and destruction of riverbank vegetation, etc.”

”This has made the Kafue River’s water quality very poor, causing severe soil erosion problems, so the rivers within Kitwe City, including the Kafue, must be rectified.”

Kitwe City is one of the river sources of the Kafue River, and here the whole administrative district of Kitwe City is referred to, including its affiliated towns and villages, which means the entire prefecture-level city area.

Therefore, this is also a major reason why Kitwe City can become the second-largest city in the copper mining belt, as Kitwe City’s subordinate towns generally look up to Kitwe City, at least administratively speaking.

Deberne continued, ”In terms of managing the Kafue River, the first step is to protect the source’s ecological environment, that is, the natural environment in the northwest mountainous areas, setting up protection zones, and restricting the destruction and development of source water regions.”

”The middle section, which includes the urban area, must do a good job of wastewater treatment, while also restoring riverbank vegetation, establishing natural protection belts on both sides of the river, reverting farmland to forest, returning to grass, and reducing and preventing the occurrence of soil erosion.”

Kitwe City is one of the highly industrialized regions in East Africa. Although the population of Kitwe City proper is only over thirty thousand, far less than Lubumbashi, the development of Kitwe City’s subordinate towns—which mostly focus on industry and mining—is not poor.

Moreover, a cluster of industrial and mining towns, together with Kitwe City proper, may be imagined to have significant environmental destruction, especially as local industries primarily focus on heavy industry.

Kitwe City’s agriculture and tertiary industry haven’t developed ideally, mainly due to long-term neglect, thus the development is relatively crude.

Deberne aims to change this status quo; with only heavy industry, and an overreliance on copper mining, it has led to Kitwe City’s industrial development being very uneven, in blunt terms, Kitwe City’s industries are like a student who especially excels in one subject but lacks in others.

Take the Bohemian Industrial Zone south of Kitwe City as an example. Even though the industry mainly focuses on heavy industry, due to the diversity of natural resources in the Bohemian Industrial Zone, the industrial chain and types are also richer.

Even if the development of heavy industry experiences limitations, it won’t inflict fatal damage upon it, while Kitwe City now fully relies on the copper mining industry, posing a higher economic development risk than the Bohemian Industrial Zone.

Deberne said, ”Right now Kitwe City’s ecological issues are very serious, affecting the development of our city’s agriculture, environmental protection, and service industry.”

Kitwe City’s copper mining and smelting have impacted local land, vegetation, and water sources, and this destruction has shown great potency, after all, Kitwe City has been developing over several decades. As mining and metallurgy scale up, the impact range also expands.

”Take agriculture, for example, influenced by mining activities, a large amount of land has been polluted and destroyed. Meanwhile, due to the thriving metallurgy industry, it has already negatively affected arable land, presenting issues such as soil heavy metal exceedance, soil erosion, desertification, and other negative phenomena.”

”Although the city’s yield mainly relies on the copper mining industry, it’s unsustainable. After all, Kitwe City’s copper resources are ultimately limited, whereas agriculture, if maintained well, can be a timeless long-term business.”

”Therefore, we can’t sacrifice long-term interests for immediate gains; protecting land, vegetation, and water sources becomes urgent and imperative.”

”In the past, we weren’t capable of doing this, after all, during the early stages of development, everything prioritized the accumulation of primitive capital. But now Kitwe City’s economy has developed, we can’t continue making foolish moves like cutting off our foundation, and we should look further ahead.”

”Pollute first, then remediate, no longer meets our city’s actual needs. If we cling to these outdated ideas, we all will become Kitwe City’s culprits in the future.”