By Wesley Ngwenya
I am writing this from a guest house somewhere in woodlands–one of the neighborhoods in Lusaka. This is my temporal shelter for the weekend maybe more as my house in Kabwata is completely submerged in water—every room. I have, therefore, abandoned my property which is all floating in about 12 inches high water. [quote]
This should not be a big deal because I chose to go and live in Kabwata. No one forced me to move into that neighborhood. Kabwata site and service is a neighborhood just south east of Lusaka. This means that the houses in this neighborhood have been built by the residents. The City Council provided the land to build the houses. Therefore, the neighborhood has a variety of houses from nicely fenced and fancy houses to poorly built ones.
This neighborhood has been in existence since the early eights but it has no proper drainage systems or paved roads. Therefore, when it rains especially the way it has been in the last three weeks, there are a lot of floods all over. Many people in Kabwata are living with pools of water outside or inside their houses. They do not have the privilege of sneaking to some guesthouse or a relative with better accommodation. They have to continue staying in the same conditions during this period.
Kabwata is considered middle class and is in such terrible state. I hate to think of the situation in Misisi, Kanyama, and Chipata Compounds where I hear people are reported to have died as a result of the floods. What is the local or state government doing about this? What has taken them long to provide these much needed services in these areas? What has been happening to the land rates and other taxes that we pay?
This past week for the first time, the local government decided to send contractors to work on the drainage in Kabwata. What work can be done at this time of the year when there is so much water? Where have they been all this time? Where was the money sitting all this time? Why do we always have to react to problems instead of tackling issues before they become problems? These are frustrating questions to even think of when there are people employed to do these things.
Lusaka City needs a complete makeover underground. Downtown Lusaka (or the city center) is a terrible mess when it rains. Each time it rains in the city the water doesn’t seem to know where to go. It is never guided and usually will flow with the gradient of the ground. Look at those bus stations in the city. Despite that they are used by millions of passengers every year, they continue to be flooded sometimes to knee-high when it rains. Year after year it is the same problems, same places and same consequences- accidents, diseases, and even deaths.
I would go on and on but I will stop here. I have already provided solutions in my previous article on floods. Besides, Rupiah is in a party mood right now and won’t listen. He is busy celebrating his birthday. He is never too old to party. Anyway, as soon as the partying is over we can come back to the table and talk about the floods. By the way, I am working on another love letter for you and your government. Until next time happy birthday Mr President.
The house is an iland on its on. A Capital city having such situation where the President and Vice also live. I wise this was state house so that people could run around to do something. Those are people living in there and not Cows. Please do Something
We told you not to vote for PF.Now we are all bearing the consequences.They have miss managed these resources meant to provide services to the residents.The Town clerk is PF.The Mayor PF,The Technocrats are all PF.It is a very SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what has been exposed is just a drop in the ocean. the floods are pathetic in Lusaka. Talk about the Roads, am sure the spare parts dealers are minting and r hoping that the situ continues. Today’s experience in Kasama Road has been the boom, 30min to cover 3km and we are told that 8 billion was spent last year on some Roads in Kabwata. From what I have seen 8 billion has either been zooked or wasted which ever way the residents of Chilenje,Kabwata, Libala Chalala have been robbed of development in broad daylight. Where is the so called CDF going to take us considering that these funds have to be shared amongst the Wards eg kabwata Constituency has 5 wards, each ward will want equal share. so guys do the math and tell me. other Constituencies have more than 10 Wards. what does this mean?
The title of the article should have been “Open letter to Given Lubinda”
Your artcle Wesley is actually annoying. You have abandoned your friends in Kabwata and you are in a posh lodge in Kabulonga.
It is all your fault for voting for useless PF Councellors who promised you heaven within 90 days. It is not RBs fault. The blame is with you. They cheated you that they will run a pararell Government. Nay.
Please learn now that an arrongant opposition can never deliver. Why don’t you talk to Given?
#4 and #5 this has nothing to do with Lubinda, we were at RDA today and we were given first hand information regarding the Drainage and Roads for Kabwata. CDF is a non starter for such a project. u cant even build a police post with CDF.
#6 so where has the little CDF gone if it was not used for even a police post and unblocking the drainages? next time dont go to RDA for such information, go to the city council and later to the consituency office of the MP.
#6 so where has the little CDF gone if it was not used for even a police post and unblocking the drainages? next time dont go to RDA for such information, go to the city council and later to the consituency office of the MP. What about land rates and bus station levies? did you get first hand info from RDA on this one as well?
Wow this is not a good sight to look at.As much as we want to complain about poor drainage systems, flooding is a natural disaster and occurs even in privileged places like the USA. In many ways our drainage systems outperforms those in the U.S. Ours are deeper and wider as opposed to the narrow underground systems in the states, which are susceptible to clogging, backing up, and over spill. Even during times of moderate rain the drainage system in the US often fails. I’m not going to sit here and criticize others when I haven’t done anything to help the situation in Zambia, this seems like a more complex problem than meets the eye. So I have decided to give our government a break. My heart goes to those that have lost loved ones during this difficult period.
# 8 have you been to the council I’d be happy to go there and find out the 411. infact when we went to RDA we were told that the council should have addressed us as RDA is the over seer of these projects. the other thing is that all this money that is collected, it be road levy/tax etc is put in one control account at BOZ(basket Account), then Govt will decide how these funds will be used, so even the majority of cash is collected from the urban areas its no guarantee that we will get the development first. At the end of the day its the Government that decides. Ask yourself one question how come almost all the Police Stations have dilapidated Furniture and yet the Road blocks that are mounted alot of money is collected. where does the money go??
Flooding only means that there is too much water coming into Lusaka at any one time – that is an upstream problem. Doesn’t Lusaka have an irrigation district that could absorb access rainfall? What is the role of deforestation, as forests and soil humus are capable of absorbing millions of gallons of water? I doubt that this amount of flooding is just a drainage problem.
PS, I meant to say excess rainfall.
James Z Banda
#10
The police on roadblocks pocket the money, ask any bus drivers they will till you.
#13 that part I know but some motorists pay the fines as they don’t encourage underhand methods so the same cash collected should be used accordingly. I just heard on the news today that some cops are sharing accommodation with Horses ku Sikanze Camp. is this proper honestly.
infact its the cops that are in the stables
Ikalenifye, mwalibelela nipa zedi. Tekenipo ubwali uko.
The 90 days projects will only work when the PF-UPND pact gets into power. Its the work of the govt to do the roads. The 290 billion going to Mfuwe road that passes by RB’s farm is NOT CDF money, neither is it cash from the council.
spot on # 17 walasa
We have freaking engineers from UNZA what are they being paid for?let’s see what they have to solve for Lusaka,maybe they hope the West will come to their aid,yet they make so much noise,i have advice to them don’t make noise if you can’t solve small problems like drainage,bloody *****s…
The problems with Zambians is that even if it was a natural yhing like haiti you would find reason to blame the head of state
#6. The only one thing I have appreciated very much about this LT blog is that it has exposed how shallow Zambians think. So, chaps like #4 n #5 think its Given Lubinda’s making or pf? You guys are dull and shallow in thought. Just by reading the blogs clears one’s mind why Zambians elect fulls for presidents because no matter how educated most Zambian shallow thinkers.
What we like in Zambia is planing things like this could have been sorted out along time ago if we had proper proffessionals in place what is happening in Kabwata and other places is not the blame for head of state nor area MP but people who are payed to do the planing for that city before plots are given i lived in Kabwata before i left Zambia and know that probrem has been there foreever year after year please blame the right people so that they can be replaced