By KENNEDY MUPESENI –

KONKOLA Copper Mines (KCM) has provided 200,000 fingerlings  for restocking natural water bodies facing fish depletion on the Copperbelt.
The fingerlings would be fed into the natural water bodies that had been facing fish depletion in the last 10 years as part of its corporate social investment.
Most rivers in the country, Copperbelt inclusive, are facing serious fish depletion due to bad fishing methods such as the use of poison and mosquito nets.
KCM Community relations manager Brian Siatubi said the mining giant had been working with the Ministry of Livestock in restocking natural water  bodies on the Copperbelt.
“Working with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, we have been providing 20,000 fingerlings every year in the last 10 years in an effort to overcome fish depletion in most water bodies on the Copperbelt,” Mr Siatubi said.
Mr Siatubi was speaking in an interview in Chililabombwe on Wednesday this week.
KCM, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, has spent more than US$160 million on corporate social investments in the country in the past 10 years.
Mr Siatubi said that the company has four pillars in the area of community social investment of which fish restocking was one of them.
The company has also been running a “pass-on-a-cow” programme where it has given out about 600 heads of cattle and 2,800 goats to the farming community.
Mr Siatubi said each household is given two animals be it goats or cattle and later passed on to other beneficiaries.