Govt keen to end water problems in Lusaka-Kaziya

Sun, 02 Apr 2017 11:48:52 +0000

By MARY KACHEPA

VIGOROUS rehabilitation works are under way to address water challenges that have affected some parts of Lusaka for a longtime now, says Water development, Sanitation and Environmental protection minister Lloyd Kaziya.

Mr Kaziya said that the ongoing rehabilitation works had affected the supply of water to certain townships but that once they were complete, there will be improved supply of water.

“There are vigorous rehabilitation works that are taking place to address the water challenges that some parts of Lusaka have been experiencing for a longtime,” he said

The minister said that the only problem was that Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company(LWSC} did not make announcements to the general public about interruption in the supply of water to enable them plan and store water during those periods without water.

Mr Kaziya said that his ministry was also looking into improving rural water supply and sanitation.

“As a new ministry we have to scale up our efforts in ensuring that every Zambian has access to clean safe drinking water because we are working at achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG} number 6, which is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all,” he said.

Mr Kaziya said that his ministry had also taken the pronouncements by the head of state in his address to parliament regarding water and sanitation very seriously and that was why it was putting in place measures to start harvesting rain water.

“We went to Israel to learn from our colleagues, because we cannot continue to have water problems when we have enough rivers in the country which must be able to sustain us with water without running out at any point,” he said.