Zambia

Formerly a british colony known as Northern Rhodesia, the Republic of Zambia was created in 1964 after independence from Britain. Copper mining had long been the mainstay of the country's economy, and price reductions in the 1980s and 1990s along with prolonged drought jeopardized the economy of the new country. Contested elections and political corruption threatened political stability until 2002 when an anticorruption campaign was initiated. By 2004 copper prices had recovered, and new mines had begun operation. Other resources with the potential for improving Zambia's economy include: cobalt, zinc, lead, coal, emeralds, gold, silver, uranium, and hydropower.

Economic prosperity in Zambia is hampered by high foreign debt, made more complicated by restructuring through the International Monetary Fund, though multilateral agencies are working with the government to effectuate debt relief. With a per capita income of only $900, Zambia is the 17th-poorest country in the world. Eighty-six percent of the population lives in poverty and nearly half of Zambians are seriously undernourished. The richest 10 percent of the population hold 41 percent of the wealth, while the poorest segments share just over one percent of resources. Around eight percent of land area is arable, but 85 percent of the population are engaged in the agricultural sector, mostly at the subsistence level. Half of the workforce is unemployed. The United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Reports rank Zambia 166 of 232 countries on overall quality of life issues.

Zambia is landlocked but has 11,890 square kilometers of inland water resources. Land borders are shared with Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The terrain of Zambia is made up of plateaus rising to isolated hills and mountains. Elevations range from 329 meters at the Zambezi River, which forms a riverine boundary with Zimbabwe, to 2,301 meters in the Mafinga Hills. The tropical climate is moderated by the rainy season between October and April. Zambia is subject to periodic droughts, and tropical storms are possible throughout much of the rainy season.

Zambia's population of 11,502,010 is subject to major environmental health hazards. With one of the highest HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rates in the world (16.5 percent), 920,000 Zambians are living with the disease. Approximately 89,000 people have died with HIV/AIDS since 2003. Only 55 percent [Page 2008]of the population has access to safe drinking water, and only 45 percent has access to improved sanitation. Consequently, Zambians have a very high risk of contracting food and waterborne diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and the water contact disease schistosomiasis. In some areas, Zambians are at high risk for contracting malaria and plague. As a result of high incidences of disease, Zambians have a lower-than-normal life expectancy (40.03 years) and growth rate (2.11 percent), and higher-than-normal infant mortality (86.84 deaths per 1,000 live births) and death rates (19.93 deaths/1,000 population). The high fertility rate of 5.39 children per female presents health hazards for Zambian women.

Centuries of mineral extraction and refining have led to acid rain produced by air pollution. Despite the abundance of water sources, inadequate treatment facilities lead to major health threats to Zambians. Desertification is widespread. Around 42 percent of land area is forested, but deforestation is occurring at a rate of 2.4 percent per year. Soil erosion is extensive as a result of agricultural mismanagement.

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