Wed, 14 Feb 2018 10:38:10 +0000
By VIOLET TEMBO
MINISTER of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Lloyd Kaziya has directed Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC) to obtain a court order to demolish a clinic built on top of a water pipe in Ndola’s Hillcrest ward.
The clinic, which is already operational, was built three years ago from Ndola Central constituency development fund.
Speaking to journalists in Ndola, Mr. Kaziya directed KWSC to demolish all other structures built on water and sewer networks.
“Despite the facility being government property constructed using constituency development fund, it was misplaced and a new place to erect another one must be sought.
I have no apologies that we will demolish it because I want to show political will in this matter…I do not want to promote illegality and we also do not want to be in distress to look for money to redirect the networks,” Mr. Kaziya said.
Efforts to get a comment from Ndola Central member of Parliament Emmanuel Mulenga failed by press time as his phone went unanswered.
The Minister has since asked Ndola City Council (NCC) to secure another location where the clinic would be built.
Mr. Kaziya warned that people must keep away from such facilities to avoid disturbing the networks.
He said indiscriminate allocation of plots by local authorities had promoted encroachment on water and sewer networks countrywide.
Mr. Kaziya urged councils to learn from the many challenges the utility companies faced in areas where people had encroached on the utility networks.
And KWSC director of engineering Bernard Phiri said the utility company was concerned over some Ndola residents’ continued encroachment on its facilities.
Mr. Phiri said the encroachment covered a wide range on the banks of Kafubu River and from 21 of its well fields in Minsundu area.
He said if left unattended to, the situation would result in contamination of the company’s water sources.
