Surveying Chimfunshi

As you may recall, some time ago I paid a visit to the Chimfunshi chimpanzee orphanage. I just paid another visit on a very different errand. This second visit was paid in the company of a geologist and an environmental engineer who were giving me a ride back to Ndola. On the way, they stopped at Chimfunshi to conduct the preliminary stages of an environmental impact assessment. The task was to take pictures of the floodplain of the Kafue River, and to establish the GPS coordinates of the chimpanzee enclosure itself.

The impact being assessed is that of a road they are planning to build through the Chimfunshi Trust’s property. Chimfunshi, you see, abuts the south bank of the Kafue River, which forms a natural barrier against Congolese highwaymen. The parcel Arthur & co. were prospecting lies to the north of the river. Once that parcel becomes a working mine, the plan is to reduce security risk by building a bridge across the Kafue and transporting the ore to the main Chingola-Solwezi road—through the trust’s property.

You will recall my dire musings about the orphanage’s future. Given my earlier intuition, it felt grimly affirmativee to be a part of that operation. At one point the geologist let slip his company’s real ambitions: To prospect for minerals at Chimfunshi itself in the hopes of turning it into a mine. His company owns the mineral rights, after all, and you better believe that the only thing the government cares about is revenue flowing into the trough. There were various bons mots about ‘stakeholders’ and equitable solutions and this and that, of course, but I believe that I may have glimpsed the future when, as we slogged around the flooded perimeter of the property taking GPS readings, I saw the peaceful wooded enclosure transform into a gigantic open pit. And the whole project may end up facilitating the movement of Congolese brigands to boot.

TIA.