New research published in June 2026 has found severe air and water contamination around major industrial mining sites in Lualaba (a mineral-rich province in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo), with pollutant levels routinely exceeding World Health Organization safety thresholds by up to six times. A school in the mining city of Kolwezi sits less than 500 metres from a waste disposal site, exposing roughly 1,500 students and 68 staff to air pollution that independent researchers described as among the worst ever recorded at an industrial mining site globally. The findings matter because the DRC supplies three-quarters of the world's cobalt — a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries — raising urgent questions about whether the human and environmental costs borne by local communities are an acceptable price for the global green energy transition.