ZAMBIAN villagers won a landmark legal battle today at Britain’s highest court against a British mining company that has been blamed for contaminating their water supply.

The Supreme Court in London unanimously ruled that mining giant Vedanta can now be sued in Britain for allegedly turning Zambia’s longest river, the Kafue, “bright-blue” with toxic effluent from the Nchanga copper mine.

The judgment by Chief Justice Lady Hale and four other judges came after lawyers for Vedanta Resources plc have spent years claiming that English courts have no jurisdiction over the company’s Zambian subsidiary, Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).