Tue, 23 Jan 2018 12:58:09 +0000
HIS Excellency the President Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu and his government need to be highly commended in the manner they handled the cholera epidemic which broke out almost three weeks ago.
For the first time, we saw political will in handling a situation that was threatening human live at work.
Credit should also go to our security wings for their commitment to fight the disease not with guns but with that moral conscious and commitment to ensure a clean environment for all.
However media reports indicate that the outbreak of this disease only occurred in highly impoverished communities of Kanyama, Matero, Mandevu and Kalingalinga townships of Lusaka and there was no mention of the disease in townships such as woodlands, ibex hill, Kabulonga and other such areas where the well to do live. What does this mean?
It means that cholera has to do with poverty levels. It means that cholera is not only a health issue but a social and economic issue as well which need tackling from those three angles. We all know that water and sanitation has been a big problem in these highly impoverished communities but, nothing tangible has been so far.
We all know that household livelihoods in these communities have been a big challenge, but nothing tangible has been done. Poor water and sanitation is one of the indicators of poverty. Surely did we have to wait until cholera breaks out for us to b e on our toes, when year in and year out the Central Statistical Office have been releasing data of impoverished communities in Zambia and the dangers such impoverishment poses?
The auditor general in their 2016 report said that money meant for poverty reduction was misused and deviated to workshop and paid as allowances to participants and meanwhile His Excellency Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu and the PF want evidence of corruption. Come on. Let us be serious.
The auditor general report is a government official document and it is evidence in itself of corruption and abuse of office.
As long as money meant for poverty reduction continue to go towards payment of allowances for civil servants attending workshop – those measures government put in to fight cholera are only cosmetic and window dressing. We need a holistic approach to fight cholera and the starting point is to budget for water and sanitation in those cholera prone areas.
Secondly we need to uplift the standard of living for those people in cholera prone areas, and find a way of micro financing to marketers and street vendors, This is the challenge before His Excellency the President and his government . The first solution is to arrest those who misused funds meant for poverty reduction as reported by the auditor general.
The Lusaka City Council should be grateful to the security wings for assisting them clean up the city and now their challenge is to ensure that they also come up with a budget that will continue to keep Lusaka clean but also be seen to be ploughing back into the impoverished communities money raised from levies and other tax. The Lusaka City Council and indeed all other local authorities need to start investing into public hygiene programs as a way of fighting cholera epidemic in future.
The author is a governance activist in Kasama. EMAIL : walkingsafari2015@gmail.com cell: 0964691749, 0961835055.
