THE RAINS ARE UPON US!- This also means floods
ONCE again the rains are here! A few days ago, Lusaka experienced its first serious rain shower which is indeed a welcome blessing for the farmers and all of us. Temperatures dropped and it was so cool.
I was just wondering what has happened to “Keep Zambia Clean and Green Campaign” spearheaded by former Lusaka Mayor, Miles Sampa? Here, my interest is keeping stormwater drainages clear of debris, this will certainly aid stormwater to channel into streams and abate flooding and its offshoots of cholera and diarrhea. Now that indeed the rains are upon us, it’s time to be ahead of the game and be ready for the next “flood”, yes I’m referring to perennial floods around Lusaka and other parts of the country.
Kanyama compound in particular has been the epicentre of these dreaded floods. In 1978, Kanyama compound floods hit headlines with many families being affected and lives lost and this has continued to afflict misery and pain on the poor residents year in year out ever since. At the time of the infamous Kanyama Disaster, money and materials were donated to little or no effect, funds were misappropriated.
Noah, as the Bible teaches us in the book of Genesis, Noah meticulously prepared for the great flood by putting in place all manner of mitigation measures and yet thousands of years later, we are still grappling with miniature “floods” in comparison.
In the case of Kanyama, first of all we need to understand the reasons why we find ourselves in this conundrum. Kanyama sits on a fairly flat topography whose geology dolomitic-limestone do tend to be impervious or slow draining hence prone to flooding.
Kanyama is an unplanned settlement, with no adherence to standard infrastructure norms. There are no proper roads and/or stormwater drains, haphazard construction works is the order of the day. In the 90’s the Government of the day drew up plans to upgrade informal settlements, we need to seriously revisit this exercise.
We urgently need stakeholders to include Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, City Council, Urban Planners, Zambia Institute of Architects, Engineering Institution of Zambia, Zambia Environmental Management Agency, and Resident Representatives etc. etc. to get together and exhaustively discuss this matter and come up with a lasting solution which will stand the test of time.
I would go further to suggest a monetary prize competition for who so ever comes up with the best solution. In other parts of the city, we seem to have benefitted from the Millennium Challenge Account so gracefully funded by the American Government tax payers in construction of Bombay drains which I must say have gone a long way in channeling unwarranted stormwater.
Floodwater harvesting is what we need to seriously look into as well. Abundant floodwater should be collected, channeled, stored and used later for irrigation and various other uses.
In other parts of the country, we have seen a number of culverts and bridges being washed away leaving communities divided, schools and health facilities being cutoff and not being able to be accessed.
Here again, we need to be proactive and ensure periodic and sustained routine maintenance of bridge infrastructure.
Community participation is key in achieving the desired goals. We need to sensitise communities to jealously guard against wonton destruction of such infrastructure. Kudos to the Road Development Agency (RDA)for I’m duly informed that they have embarked on installation of Acrowbridges (Bailey bridges) across the country to be implemented in phases.
A few years ago we witnessed massive disruption in traffic on the Great East Road at Kacholola where part of the culvert on the main trunk road was washed away. It is high time as Zambian citizens we demand a higher standard of service from not only local authorities but from central government as well.
We need to question development brought to an area because there is a by-election like the grading of roads, clinics and schools in our communities which I am sure if done in a hurry will not be done professionally. Development, in my view, should be an on-going exercise; elections or no elections.
One might say that world over, floods are happening and this is being attributed to climate change or global warming. Yes, this may be true. Earlier this year, Germany experienced floods like so many other parts of the world.
The difference here is the level of preparedness, especially if you have the same floods occurring and causing destruction in the same places every year, this is not acceptable. If anything this is an embarrassment and those amongst our citizenry who bear the brunt of this are the poor and vulnerable amongst us.
*Eng. Julius Kazembe-Lungu is Technical Director, JKL-Associates.
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