Speaking when he addressed the press during the daily cholera emergency response meeting and briefings at Ndeke House this morning, Mr Chanda revealed that the main intervention from the specialists from israel would be the deployment of high technology to deal with water purification and treatment, with the overal objective being to deal with cholera in a comprehensive manner.
” This team comprises water Engineers and Epidemiologists. They are 5 of them . I gave them a brief and surrendered them to the Minister of Health. They have held briefings and gone on the ground to conduct tests and gather information about the epidemic. This evening, I will be taking them to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of water so that he links them up with the technical staff at the Ministry,” Mr Chanda said.
And Mr Chanda stated that the technology and the treatment was meant to eliminate if possible, completely the bacteria that causes cholera.
“So this will be short term, Medium term and in the long term will provide technical advise and support that will help the government combat this problem. The technical advise will also include interventions for medium and long term to address sanitation problems especially in high density population areas, focusing on the areas where the epidemic is most serious,” he said.
And Mr Chanda clarified that this was not a government to government arrangement but a response to the Presidential initiative.
” Later on, it might become government to government. But for now,it is an initiative of sheba medical centre and Zambia boarder company, the owners of Kasumba Lesa Boarder post as a contribution to the broader response. This is just one major response and support coming from partners Sheba Medical centre, Zambia Boarder company and the Presidential initiative,” Mr Chanda clarified.
How about the UNZA and CBU engineers?
Absolute rubbish! So do we really need an expert to tell us basics? Am
ashamed to be Zambian
This where a we get it wrong. Amos has assumed so much power and doing things way above his scope. We have enough expertise in the country, what we lack is leadership. President Lungu has let uneducated people like Amos usurp power.
Hahahah…yeah neh let them utilise their useless papers called diploma or degrees.
5 of them, just 5.
The State house is not serious.
Israel again; dangerous!!?
And you send hardworking men back to barracks.
From Israel to come and tell you that you live like pigs….
Nigga Nature – Do you understand the nature of the problem? First for your information, UNZA and CBU are learning institutions, not Engineering firms.
The Presidential Initiative seems to be a disguised Ministry which is headed by Amos Chanda. No wonder he is the most powerful Assistant to Press in the World. Why did this procedure not go through the Ministry of Health directly, instead of State House or Chanda controlling the scene? Whoever, the Minister of Health is, now is rendered useless.You mean after 53 years of independence, Zambia cannot produce the Water Engineers and Epidemiologists to carry out an assessment and provide recommendations to the government? Ati “This evening, I will be taking them to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of water..”. Ati “this was not a government to government arrangement but a response to the Presidential initiative”, what is this PI, private initiative? shame.
Who owns kasumba lesa border post……
Really, do we need the Israelis to tell us how to prevent cholera when we have many incidents before? This is not laughable but stu.pi.dity of the highest order. This is what happens when you have a leadership that is du.ll. Everyone in Zambia knows the causes and how to prevent. Firstly is just sheer irresponsibility of individuals and those in government. Secondly misplaced priorities driven by greed and corru.ption by those in government. There is nothing new the Israelis will tell this Ka Chanda that Zambians do not already know. We should be ashamed
Of ourselves as Zambians, we cannot grow up.
When was the last time we heard, if ever, a case of cholera in Israel for Israelis to have developed expertise on this disease? In Zambia we have outbreaks of cholera nearly every year especially during the rain season and you are telling me we have NOT BOTHERED TO DEVELOPED OUR OWN EXPERTS in this?
Cholera is a disease of FILTHY LIVING ENVIRONMENTS. We sure don’t need Israelis to come and tell us this! All Ministers, including the President himself, have to do is get out of their Govt provided SUVs and walk around Lusaka to see where the problem lies…..this is NOT rocket science people! Tolerate filthy cities and no amount of Israeli expertise will make a difference. Next year we will back dealing with cholera gain.
Wake the h3ll up people. Start acting like RESPONSIBLE…
Proudly bringing Israelis to Zambia who can not stand Black African people in their country as they do not want them to mess up their gene pool ….they will simply come and conduct experiments for bio weaponry. It seems this Presidential Initiative Fund is a big blank cheque no wonder this lazy moron who can not answer any corruption allegations is getting richer by the day.
Continue…
… LEADERS/POLITICIANS who care about condition of cities where they and their families live, and have traveled around the world and seen how other Countries are Organized, governed, and run when it comes to CLEAN CITIES. Not just acting like chickens with their heads cutoff only when a disaster/pandemic hits. Politicians who appear to have NO CLUE WHY THEY WERE ELECTED to begin with and without any long term solutions to seemingly solvable problems that have bedeviled our Country since the Colonials left. The question is WHY???
This is really sad and disappointing!
PF Manifesto: HEALTH SERVICES
a) Service Delivery
– By 2021, substantially reduce the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases;
=======================
Is it reducing epidemics before they OCCUR or call in Israelis after this has happened? PF you are not meeting your own manifesto, CRAP, Nice to have on paper !!!
These are corrupt Rats this Lazy Lungu if he wanted assistance he would have asked WHO but since he wants to appease his Mosad friends; he will ask them to invoice him 1 million dollars so they can share the money.
SH!T!! DO WE REALLY NEED A WHITE EXPERT TO CLEAN UP THE TOWNS, CONSTRUCT PROPER DRAINAGES AND BUILD MORE MARKETS AND FEE-PAYING TOILETS IN TOWNS? UBU BUPUBA BWAPA ZAMBIA MAKES ME SICK TO THE STOMACH. YOU DON’T NEED A WHITE EXPERT TO COME AND TELL YOU THAT YOU NEED PROPER WASTE MANAGEMENT, TOILETS IN TOWNS AND CIVIC LOCATIONS WHERE PEOPLE LIVE. BA CHANDA DO YOU NEED A WHITE MAN TO COME AND TELL YOU THAT YOU NEED TO USE LOO ROLL AND WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER MWANYA MU PROPER TOILET? ZAMBIA HAS A LONG WAY TO GO, THEN.
@Peter – why dont you ask Lazy Lungu who you sing praises for?
MEMO
FROM: BENJAMIN NETANYAHU/ PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL
TO: THE PEOPLE OF ZAMBIA
SUBJECT: RESULTS OF UN ABSTATIA VOTEUN JERUSALEM VOTE
Thank you for abstaining from voting at the United Nations. Because of this we shall send our engineers to come and resolve the Cholera epidemic in Zambia. We have written some algorithms that will resolve the situation immediate. It’s a simple app:
1. Drink and use safe water
2. Wash your hands often with soap and safe water
3. Use latrines or bury your faeces (poop)
4. Cook food well and wash vegetables
5. Clean up safely
We shall send some drones to Zambia to monitor the situation remotely
Thank you
Bibi
P/S Tell Amos Chanda not tp wait for us at the airport we will not send engineers as we don’t want them to suffer from cholera
Just a cheap pathetic stunt, to try and save face by this incompetent administration. Did you really need Israelis to come and teach you how to keep your country clean? Wow. Any Zambian could’ve given you advice on how to prevent Cholera. KEEP ZAMBIA CLEAN! KEEP ZAMBIA CLEAN! KEEP ZAMBIA CLEAN! How about that advice for free? On second thought, I may have to send you a bill for giving you that advice, since you seem incapable of thinking of it yourselves. The so called expert advice you seek from the Israelis will not work as long as you don’t pay attention to keeping the country clean. This is something you should’ve done a long time ago, i.e., putting in place an effective sanitation system. But instead, you let mountains of garbage to mushroom all over the city. You mean…
(Continued)… you didn’t know that poor sanitation leads to an outbreak of deadly diseases? Keeping a country clean is not just for fun. It’s a matter of life and death. If you keep the country clean you save lives, and it helps the economy too. You embarrass us Zambians everywhere.
I really don’t understand the negative comments here. Zambia is a very poor country and can use all the help it can get, without any shame . Israel is particularly good at water management (it has to be). If Israel can help, all the better. I was in Zambia recently (South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi). The country is amazing and the local people we met (admittedly few) were all helpful, friendly and actually charming.
Why call that Presidential Initiative? Have we gone back to chiluba time?
That’s because our utterly dull lazy President woke up and decided which foreigner he will give our taxpayers money as he did with those 200+ solar hammer mills imported all way from China at unknown price!!
So we need foreigners to help us deal with our mess? How sophisticated is that technology?
There is nothing wrong with receiving long term technical advice to sanitation problems. While we are doing everything we can to eliminate the epidemic, we have to be glad that government is going a step further to ensure consistency in the aftermath.
Bring back Dr. Mbewe and the team back at Ministry of health before we all perish. Take those interns masquerading as Directors to the wards. We hear that the Department of Communicable Diseases Control was scrapped at MOH HQ and Provincial Health Offices.
The president should act before we all end up in cholera centers.
Why did they fail to contain 5 cases in August.
Someone was not serious.
The president should hear this. I agree when Dr.Mbewe and the team were at MOH we stopped having cholera.
When Dr.Chavuma a well trained Epidemiologist was Health Director for Lusaka, there was no cholera case for 2 years…but he comes from the wrong tribe. Chilufya and his PF cadre directors at MoH should seriously review qualifications for District Directors of Health
Amos, honestly 53 years of independence and we need outside countries to solve a simple health disease? what a shame. cholera is brought on by filth. not caring about garbage and clean water is the cause of this outbreak. as a zambian I am ashamed. spend less money travelling in large entourages and all the time and you can put more money into the health sectors and cleaning of all places in the country. The money for the mukula trees could be put into these sectors and building toilets in the markets.
We have the likes of Professor Luo trained at great cost to the country who are happy to sit in cabinet meetings and agree to to this rubbish…what a shame!!
This is what you get when you have incompetent ministers running affairs beyond their capabilities. It takes 5 specialists to show the whole country how to deal with Cholera?
The Minister of Health is shooting in the dark. Bring back experienced directors at MOH. Twalapwa.
What a joke. Honestly, do we need people from outside to come and teach us about issues of hygiene? This government is a disgrace to the outside world. Imagine how Lusaka town is looking like now? Did we need the cholera epidemic for us to make it human habitable or this is a thing we should have done a longtime ago? This knee jerk reaction to issues is what promotes corruption because every Jim and Jack is jumping on the band wagon in the name of eradicating this vise while enriching themselves by procuring things on inflated prices. Don’t we have doctors who can deal with this? Why are insulting our own people this way? Lungu is a let down for sure.
While all criticism on anything rages on , that to me is commendable interventions to arrest the scourge. Many countries even very powerfully developed and technologically advanced nations have made fatal and regrettable mistakes by shying away from soliciting help from other nations in times of trouble. One such incidence is the 12th august 2000 when the Russians refused help from other countries during their submarine kursk disaster. At the moment Zambia needs to save lives at any cost from the disease and all positive intervention in that directions is agreeable. It might be deemed shameful to lose lives to cholera 50 years of self rule, but it will be a historical disaster to allow such a defeatable disease to annihilate the entire Zambian population many of our friends are will…
A Zambian blogger is a useless armchair critic – like the useless opposition that they blindly follow: oppose anything and think later, if at all.
The Russian case is an example of government to a government request, here you have Chanda by-passing Ministry of Health.
Why didn’t Ministry of Health ask for help, which is the main government authority? Why does Amos have to personally drive the engineers to the concerned ministries?
@abilima, you’ve no clue as to what you’re talking about. Do you even know what democracy means? Social Media has enabled direct participation by everyone in the democratic process. The criticism here is real. Lungu’s administration should’ve have known that leaving garbage heaps uncollected in the city would lead to an outbreak of deadly diseases. That’s not rocket science. it’s common sense, which seems to lack in this administration. We pay these guys to do their job, and if they’re not doing it properly we have to criticize them, or even fire them. Remember they work for us. You wouldn’t be saying that if one of your relatives was a Cholera victim right now, would you? Cholera is preventable, and it’s the responsibility of the government to make sure preventive measures are…
(Continued)… put in place in the country.
..ing to help win the fight against the problem
Dr. Chilufya is spinning the whole taskforce and the cabinet in the wrong direction. He should step aside. The president should recall the previous management team at MOH. Fintu sivili bwino.
Even in homes, we call neighbours to assist when there is a problem. So there is nothing wrong calling on our friends from Israel for help. Attempts have been made in the past by some towns like Kitwe and Luanshya to clean to clean their surroundigs. Iive in Ndola. Nothing is being done even today. We are waiting for cholera. Its business as usual. The corridors are clogged with street vendors. Its filth all round but business as usual yet its the provincial hq. The minister is here, the ps, mayor, town clerk, dc. Name it. Noone wants make a decision. How I wish I was living in Monze.
Let’s not blame chilufya Alone. What about local government for uncollected rubbish in townships and central business Centre? Vincent Mwale is also to blame. Look at our Soweto drainages where has he been all that time. Now that there is cholera he wants to seem to work. This is embarrassing
Mr Amos Chanda sir, you do not need to bring experts from wherever. Get my free education to avoid cholera.
1. Educate people to wash hands properly
2.provide clean drinking water not water from the wells dug beside toilets
3. Public places need clean toilets
4. People should be educated on the importance of living in clean environment including markets
People should not dry hands using shared towels better use paper towel if possible. Shared hand towel be it home or restsurant carry alot of germs.
5. People to wash hand using runing water not same basin especially after burial people should avoid washing hands in shared basin and sit to eat.
6. Door handles carry alot of bacteria. Each time one opens a door, people need to know that their hands are contaminated because too many…
What did we do with the information that USA Government provided?
What the PF government just did, ask Israelis to come to help fight Cholera should not be left and unchallenged. Was the parliament informed?
Prime minister Netanyahu cannot invite people to do medical tests in his country without the consensus.
Lusaka inhabitants are paying the price for all the historic and present plunders including the degazetting of forest reserves which were set up to ensure clean underground water supplies. Fresh water used to flow from the underground water system into the Chongwe River, this has deteriorated to sewage. Lusaka residents are now all living on a septic cesspit.
99.98% of all water borne pathogens can be steralised with simple UV light……this is what the Israelis will recommend. Very simple solution.
Lusaka water table is pit latrine.
Enterprising business people will do well to start supplying simple UV light water treatment units for house holds and community taps…..
Spaka….the most influential blogger 2017..
We lead the narrative.
Very embarrassing situation…..GRZ should have assembled Zambian health and water engineers to explore the widely global available solutions to come up with a solution to this cholera contamination…there was no need up be proudly dancing over foreign intervention…..chanda you are an embarrassment…..fuc.k you and the whole hopeless PF…
Disgraceful decision. V cholera is not rocket science that requires expats from other countries. Ministry of health can and shoould deal with the problem though it looks like there is lack of leadership at Ministry, local government and Political levels. Some people under whose jurisdiction this falls should take responsibility and resign for failing the people or be fired.
Edgar Lungu is lazy, corrupt and a loaf….never in the history of Zambia have we invited foreigners; Govts have called or created Task forces comprising of Public Health experts…all this money he is wasting on these Mosad chaps could have been used on local experts at quarter of the cost.
They call themselves Patriotic but everything they do is putting local experts down no wonder Chine peasant farmers can come to Zambia and masquerade as Construction Project Managers.
amos should have just kept quiet, this is not information we need to know.now everyone is laughing at us.
I want to suggest this cholera could artificial
Ordinarily, the Public Health department should be within the councils. There is a higher responsibility for this mess for the Ministry of Local government than Ministry of Health. Unless in Zambia we are saying Public Health is under Ministry of Health? The local govt. and Public Health dept. should be responsible for cleanliness, sanitation and disease surveillance. Much of the health ministry’s work should be medical institutions, drugs, equipment and treatment.
By the way, over the years millions of $US aid, grants, loans have been pumped into the Lusaka Water reticulation and sewer systems. What happened to all that? Now we are calling in ‘experts’.
“…By the way, over the years millions of $US aid, grants, loans have been pumped into the Lusaka Water reticulation and sewer systems. What happened to all that?..”
PF have been stealing and diverting those funds…..we have consistently pointed this out. In total at different times almost $800 million has been borrowed in the name of water and sanitation. Pf only stoped using that name to borrow after we pointed this out here on LT…..
Imwe, i see a number of zed medical doctors pursuing master programs in public health in Australia, you tell me all those who have graduated non of them can carry out assessments regarding iminyele uko??
They call themselves Patriotic Front but every problem they have they think of foreigners to give our tax dollars!!
Guys the article says; its a donation from Sheba Medicals and owners of Kasumbalesa. So, you wanted the government to refuse that gesture? Some of are just commenting and can’t even contribute a bucket. All we need to talking about is how are we benefitting from all donations and pledges wich have been made so far?
You blame LT for poor reporting…that piece of information was supposed to be highlighted at the beginning of the article. Honestly, if Sheba medical center and Zambia border company, made the donation they should have been the key to be mentioned in the article, and not st.up.id emphasize on how Amos Chanda is going to drive those 5 engineers around the ministries.
If you read this article, WHO IS THE HERO? Chanda or Sheba medical center?.
The reaction would have been different if the heading was something like “Sheba Medical Center makes a donation to fight Cholera”. Part of the donations includes 5 bla…bla…
This announcement is supposed to be made by a Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health NOT a so-called presidential assistant for press! Why is this twit all over? What publicity does he want?
Lungu is a total disaster. I do not know where they picked up this thug from. He is a total disaster. He appears not to have read newspaper articles pointing out how racist Israel as a country and government are. Black people in Israel are totally made slaves and treated as subhumans. Lungu and the PF think that Israel is a Christian nation. It is not. Christians have a tough life in that country, and it has a very poor set of policies against the Palestinians who are their relatives from the past!
Too much corruption and lack of leadership in PF is the prime source of these problems.
How do you bring in experts for a dirty-related disease??
ECL and PF are really very corrupt scums.
I wonder why they can’t learn from what is happening to Zimbabwe and the former Mugabe ministers.
I dont see any sense in this Mr Chanda you dont need any one from abroad to control cholera.
Isreal has never experienced cholera how can they have expertice .
Iam wondering if some one want to make an expense on this issue , it is only the same zambians who have been controlling cholera when ever the problem surfaced . We dont need such exparts it misguided.
The technology and the treatment which is meant to eliminate if possible, completely the bacteria that causes cholera. Jokes aside do you have Zambian who can do this on their own.