The extent of the environmental liabilities and obligations incumbent on investors and ZCCM-IH/GRZ is determined by the Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act (EPPCA) of 1990 and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations (EIAR) of 1997, The Mines and Minerals Act of 1955 and the Mines and Minerals Environmental Regulations of 1997.

The EPCCA establishes the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) as the national body responsible for enforcing environmental regulations and coordinating sectoral government agencies involved in environmental management in their sectors. These responsibilities are managed by ECZ’s Technical Secretariat, which effectively constitutes Zambia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPPCA also sets environmental quality standards and makes the polluter responsible for meeting them. Thus under the EPPCA, all effluents and emissions from mining operations are regulated through a system of permits, licenses and fines. Dumps, including overburden dumps and tailings dams, are similarly regulated. The Environmental Impact Assessment regulations require that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) be prepared for all investments that have a major impact on the environment. The identification and implementation of adequate environmental mitigation measures is also regulated by the EIAR. The Mines and Minerals Act and the Mines and Minerals Environmental Regulations 1997 addresses the environmental, health and safety aspects of the mining licences delivered by the Mines and Minerals Development Department. They regulate environmental protection and pollution control in the areas where prospecting, exploration and mining operations are being carried out. They also require that any licensed mining operator closing down a mining facility must first decommission the site to a level where it does not pose any danger to public safety and health. The body mandated with monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Mines and Minerals Environmental Regulations is the Mines Safety Department (MSD) within the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development (MMMD). The regulation of the Environmental impacts of the mining sector also involves other sectors, each with its own regulatory instruments: water affairs, tourism, transport, radiation protection, health, energy, national heritage conservation, local government and land. These bodies are responsible for sectoral regulations and constitute Delegated Authorising Agencies (DAAs) under the EPPCA. ECZ defers to these agencies on specific technical issues, but retains the role of overall coordination of their respective contributions. For example, MSD is the DAA for issues arising from mining licences. Close coordination between ECZ and the all DAAs regarding mining activities, is crucial given the complex cross-sectoral nature of their environmental impacts.

The capacity of ECZ and of DAAs such as MSD to implement environmental regulations in the mining sector is very weak. As a result: i) Identification and monitoring of environmental risks resulting from mining activities is often inadequate, ii) In many instances, the appropriate permits and licenses are not issued , iii) existing regulations are seldom enforced, iv) revenue from licenses ,permits and fines for mining pollution are only partially collected. Moreover, the regulatory dispositions for the mining sector currently so weak that they do not deter polluters. The revenue that can be collected from polluters given the current fee rate only covers part of the cost of the skeleton staff presently assigned to pollution control, which is woefully insufficient for the task. The exemption by certain investors from the payment of environmental fees further undermines the financial sustainability performance of the regulatory bodies. The poor handling of environmental and social safeguards in the mining sector has already led to the lead poisoning crisis in Kabwe, the demolition of community buildings in Kansanshi and stripping of mining assets by an investor in Luanshya. Furthermore, due to poor maintenance and sometimes poor design, there is risk of several major tailings leakages over the next 5 years, unless preventive measures taken. Because of the weakness of its regulatory bodies, GRZ will play from a weak hand when reviewing, negotiating or monitoring the implementation of Investor EMPs for the mining sector. Poorly negotiated EMPs are equivalent to handing out pollution credits, thus further shifting the environmental and social costs of pollution from the investors to GRZ. Poor public disclosure of EMPs can lead  to misunderstandings or social conflict. Poor monitoring and enforcement will inevitably result in lax implementation of agreements. Without a dramatic increase in the capacity of ECZ and the DAAs to effectively control pollution, the mining sector’s “environmental mortgage” will continue to accrue. This would be a worst case scenario.

The ongoing Environmental Support Program (ESP) funded by IDA is already helping ECZ increase its capacity to fulfil its regulatory role. The ESP was launched in 1998 to support the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Now Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources) in implementing the environmental priorities defined by the NEAP. In 2001, ESP was restructured to provide direct support to ECZ for improving enforcement and compliance with national environmental safe guards. The ESP is set to close, but the Copperbelt Environment Project will continue to support the ECZ capacity building effort started under ESP.

ECZ is has previously been supported by NORAD through the industrial Pollution Prevention Programme (IPPP), whose main objective was to decrease the industrial pollution in Zambia by: i) Strengthening of the ECZ Pollution Control Division, and ii) Support of Cleaner  Production (CP) at the Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI). The IPPP has since closed. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) also financed the Environmental Management in the Mining sector Project (EMMS). The initial project was “to strengthen the technical and managerial capacity of MSD and other key mining sector institutions to execute statutory mandates to regulate, monitor, enforce and/or implement appropriate environmental management practices in the mining sector”. 

However, during the course of its implementation, EMMS is focused exclusively on technical capacity building within MSD as well as on its financial sustainability. It did not include the resources necessary to monitor the compliance performance of the mining industry, nor to enforce existing regulations. Furthermore, it did not include significant support to ECZ, nor to any of the other DAAs concerned by mining activities.