Zambia

Extreme Poverty Gives Rise to Illegal Stone Crushing in Zambia

Publication Date

Extreme Poverty Gives Rise to Illegal Stone Crushing in Zambia

Publication Date

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA -- Mary Mulenga is 64 years old. She breaks stones for a living.


“How am I going to pay rent and eat if I just sit at home?” asks Mulenga, a wife, mother and grandmother.


Mulenga is exhausted. She exerts all of her energy to break stones every day. Like many other impoverished people in Zambia, she works as a contractor, but has no equipment. Without protective attire or gear, Mulenga goes to fields and quarries, breaking down stones by hand. A hammer made of iron bar is her only tool. Each day, she hopes that the crushed stones will be purchased by construction agencies or local people since her family depends on her ability to break large stones into gravel to survive. She tries to sell a wheelbarrow of crushed stones for $1 each month. The gravel is then used to make concrete, foundations for homes and roads.


Stone crushing is a vocation mainly filled by people who are social outcasts or who cannot find other employment in Zambia. “When my husband died, I had no source of income to support my five children or pay rent,” says Loveness Banda, 38. “I had no choice but to join my friends in crushing stones.” Banda could not find a job and had no capital to start a better business when her husband, a security guard passed away.

A Growing Field for Zambia's Lower Class
Stone crushing has grown as a source of income for men, women and children in Zambia since the local authorities abandoned several large scale construction projects during recent years. People are now building their own houses, mostly in uncontrolled parts of the country, especially outside the capital city, Lusaka.

Zambia has a growing population, so increased housing is necessary even though the construction industry is weak. According to The Times of Zambia, out of the estimated 12 million population, 7.6 people, some 63 percent, lived in extreme poverty in November 2009. The spike in unemployment and high levels of poverty have given rise to stone crushing as a profession. However both the health of stone crushers and the environment are at risk from this work.


Banda has no shelter to work under. She squats in an open area to break stones. Her face and legs are covered by the dusty debris that surrounds her as she sits on the bare ground. She always ties a scarf around her head to prevent her hair from turning brown from the dust. Her once smooth palms have become hard and rough because of the stones and hammer she holds every day.


Being a single mother encourages her to work extra hard.  


“It is difficult to lift heavy stones and break them into smaller pieces every day. But what can you do when all your children are looking up to you?” Banda asks.


Like many crushers, Banda says she does not have regular customers, so she does not make a consistent income.


“Sometimes I sell once in a month or after a month. If I don’t sell, we sometimes sleep without eating or I have to borrow money to buy food and pay rent from friends,” she says.


Crushing stones is one of lowest paid labor tasks in Zambia. Rock crushing machines are very expensive and rare, so people use their bare hands with the help of the hammer to break rocks.


“We place fire wood on large rocks in the ground. We then burn the fire wood on the rock. The rock becomes soft and cracks,” says Banda. “The rock is then broken into large stones using a hammer. If you are working far from where you are burning the rock, you have to lift the broken stones or use a wheelbarrow to take to your site. You can then break them into suitable pieces.”


According to Zambia News Agency, Tasila Mwila, a manager at Tarrastone Company, said that most poor people in Zambia have resorted to stone crushing as the only source of income as opposed to engaging in detrimental activities.


Skyrocking Unemployment in Zambia
The Movement for Multiparty Democracy Misisi Ward Chairman Timothy Mukwera says, “There is no employment and our youth, women and old men crush stones to make a living.”


“Most people are illiterate because education is very expensive. The majority of youth can not complete school and resort to breaking stones, while others engage in risk[y] behaviors such as sex work or stealing,” he adds. “Small scale stone breakers, if given financial resources in forms of loans, can start good business and excel because they are hard working people.”

Working in the stone crushing business requires a license or a permit paper from the ministry of mines and the council. But the majority of small scale stone breakers have neither and work illegally. A two-year license costs $18, but before it can be issued the ministry has to regulate the area where the stone extraction is being done. Most small scale breakers complain that the fee for the license is just too expensive. Banda said she never makes $18 in a month and would rather feed her children than pay for a license.


However Felix Mulenga, a council police officer, says that crushing stones within residential and commercial areas is illegal.


“These small scale stone breakers should find a place far from people’s plots and commercial areas,” Mulenga says. “Otherwise they will always be told to move out.”


Samilan Phiri has been breaking stones for over 12 years and has frequently been evicted from places where he has sought refuge.


“Stone crushing is our only source of income, the council and so-called plot owners always find a way to remove us from our shelters,” Phiri, who has no license or permit paper, says. Early last year, Phiri and others stone crushers were chased off of property not to far from where they are now selling their rocks.

The Environmental Impact
However, the Misisi Ward councilor says he does not allow stone crushing in his constituency. “They are spoiling the land, look at Gwenya Dam; it was created as a result of the same stone crushing,” says Mukwera. “These people need to understand [the implications of their work], even if they are poor and vulnerable.”


These extractions are having negative effects on the environment, which are visible throughout Zambia. Hundreds of large and unsightly pits have been created in areas such as Kamwala south, Misisi and Chawama. The pits have exposed stones that breakers keep crushing using the crude methods of burning tires and fire wood to soften the rocks.


These pits are a hazard to residents, particularly children, who spend time swimming in them during the rainy season. In Misisi compound, a large dam has been created in the midst of the township. “Almost every year we hear of children drowning because the dam is in the midst of the compound. Children swim and people draw water, some even use the dirty water for drinking. It is a hazard to health,” says Daka.

Health Problems and Injuries Plauge Crushers
Meanwhile stone crushing here not only affects the environmental, but also the health of the breakers. Phiri developed chest pains and eye problems and eventually decided to visit a health clinic. The doctor told him that his problems were a direct result of crushing stones.


There are no records tracking the injuries or illness small scale crushers have due to their work. However, silicon crystalline, which comes out of the stones when they are crushed, irritates the skin and eyes on contact. Inhalation can cause irritation to the lungs and mucus membrane. Gershom Ndlouve of One Country newsletter said that the health of small scale stone crushers in Zambia has not been adequately addressed.

Ndlouve wrote, “Some stone breakers expend joint staining amounts of muscle, face, constraint and are at risk of hand and eye injury.”

“I have developed eye problems and I am at risk of TB and asthma. I have no choice but to continue working,” says Banda as her two daughters hammer stones few meters away.


Mulenga, Banda and Phiri, all hope to one day find something else to do apart from breaking stones. Mulenga and Phiri both dream of owning a shop in their old age.

Banda says her wish is to be able to find a job in a government institution, if possible.

“I am really tired of breaking stones all I need is a job, I don’t mind whether am employed as an office orderly,” says Banda.


And in January 2009 Maravi, an online magazine, reported former first lady Maureen Mwanawansa to have said that “What the stone breakers who are women are lacking is the structure to change their lives. What they need is technology to improve on that business. If we just leave it like that, investors will come and take the business away from women, so we need to see stone crushing as a business and not a poverty thing.”

“Promises to improve our stone crushing business have been made several times by politicians. They say that when we vote for them, they will buy rock crushing machines for us. But the moment we put them in power, they forget about their promises and never fulfill them,” says Banda.