The urban poor use heavy metal contaminated wastewater in production of crops to sustain their livelihood in Zambia Despite the inherent dangers of food crop contaminations and potential health risks associated with consumption of heavy metal contaminated food crops a lot of people engaged in wastewater irrigation farming as a source of livelihood in peri urban areas in Zambia The study focused on the urban poor engaged in cultivation of crops using heavy metal contaminated industrial wastewater and domestic sewage in order to sustain their livelihoods in peri urban areas of Mufulira and Kafue towns in Zambia To study investigated the livelihoods of people engaged in crop production using heavy metal contaminated wastewater Two study field sites were selected in the peri-urban areas of Mufulira in the Copperbelt Province and Kafue in Lusaka Province in Zambia The snowball principle was used to select informal crop cultivators at two study sites A total of 31 crop cultivators were sampled at New Farm study site in Mufulira from 26th April 2007 to 14th November 2007 whilst a total of 29 crop cultivators were sampled at Chilumba Gardens study site in Kafue from 17th September 2013 to 12th December 2013 The interview schedules were administered to selected crop cultivators The results indicated that the majority of informal crop cultivators had attained primary education and engaged in multiple livelihood activities for self sustenance The majority of crop cultivators were poor by Zambian Government standards There were multiple sources of labour while there were multiple markets for selling of crops The benefits of crop production include improved food security at the households and income generation which contribute to accumulation of capital used to invest into other economic activities apart from crop production Consumption of heavy metal contaminated food crops and informal access to the land cultivated were the major challenges In conclusion th
