LUSAKA SANITATION PROJECT SET FOR HANDOVER

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 12:56:59 +0000

By Linda Soko Tembo

MILLENNIUM Challenge Account Zambia will next month hand over two projects in Lusaka which are scheduled to be completed soon.

Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) communication and outreach director, John Kunda said the works on the two projects in Kaunda square ponds and Mazyopa drainage had reached 98 percent.

He said the Mazyopa drainage would be handed over to Lusaka City Council (LCC) while the Kaunda square ponds would be given to Lusaka Water Sewerage Company (LWSC).

In an interview with the Daily Nation, Dr. Kunda said there was need for MCA to build capacity for the two institutions by engaging them in the projects.

“We have to build capacity for the institutions, we need to start working with them as we are handing over these projects. We are likely to have official handing over ceremony which we soon announce,” he said.

He said when fully functional, the Kaunda Square ponds would service Mtendere and other surrounding areas to reduce blockages and ease the flow of sewer into the ponds.

Dr. Kunda said the sewer would be properly treated as it was going to be discharged into the natural environment “That is a major benefit for environmental sustainability,” he said.

He said in Mazyopa, the drainage project aimed at mitigating the community against flooding downstream.

However Dr. Kunda was disappointed to note that some residents of Mazyopa and Garden compound had started stealing, destroying and vandalising the quality expensive materials made of concrete fence.

He said MCA had been educating residents in the community to refrain from destroying the investment but vandalism of the property had continued.

“We are engaging in another campaign, we will engage LCC arise to the occasion and start persecuting some of these people,” Dr. Kunda said.

He explained that those who were vandalising the drainage system were disadvantaging a lot of intended beneficiaries in Lusaka.

Dr. Kunda warned people who are in the habit of vandalising public property to stop or the law would visit them. He said MCA would sit idle and watch expensive investment go down the drain.

“People must change their mindset, they should not think the investment is for the government it’s for us, for the Zambian people.  This development is for everybody and we should take care of it,” he said.