ZRL Rail Rehabilitation

The Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL), the state-owned operator of the national railway line in Zambia, intends to rehabilitate the existing railway line from Livingstone in the Southern Province to Chingola in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia (the Project).

This Project is being undertaken with the support of the Industrial Development Corporation (Zambia) Limited (IDC) in co-ordination with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport and Logistics. Swedfund International AB (Swedfund) has provided funding for the preparation of the required Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA).

SLR Consulting Africa (Pty) Ltd (SLR), in partnership with Armitage Environmental and Social Consulting (AESC), have been appointed to conduct the required ESIA and to develop the Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) for the Project on behalf of the IDC and Swedfund.

ZRL, as the operators of the railway line, are the primary applicant for the ESIA. ZRL are owned wholly (100%) by the IDC. ZRL has been operating the Zambian Railway line since 1982 and is mandated to do so under the Railways Act of 1984.

Status

PUBLIC REVIEW

A draft ESIA Report, prepared to document the impact assessment process, is being circulated for a 30-day comment period from 17 July to 18 August 2023. This provides stakeholders with the opportunity to comment on the environmental and social aspects associated with the Project and the findings of the impact assessment process.

Should you and/or your organisation wish to comment on any aspect of the ESIA Report, comments should be forwarded to SLR at the email address and telephone number shown above. For comments to be included in the ESIA Report prepared for the decision-making purposes, they should reach SLR by no later than 18 August 2023.

By providing your personal information to submit a comment, you will be included in the SLR an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) database, and you consent to SLR managing your information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. It is assumed that as an I&AP for this Project you authorise SLR to retain and use your Personal Information as part of a contact database for this and/or other Social and Environmental Impact Assessments (ESIA) and that you confirm your acceptance for SLR to contact you regarding this and/or other ESIA processes. SLR will not process your Personal Information, other than as permitted or required by ESIA processes, or as required by law or public policy. SLR will use reasonable, appropriate security safeguards to protect Personal Information, and to reasonably prevent any damage to, loss of, or unauthorised access or disclosure of Personal Information, other than as required for ESIA processes or as required by any Law or public policy. You may request for your Personal Information to be deleted from the I&AP database at any time by contacting SLR.