Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo has described the lack of water in Chongwe District as a disaster.
Mr. Lusambo who is also Kabushi Member of Parliament said the water crisis needs to be addressed quickly to avoid an outbreak of waterborne disease.
He was speaking in Chongwe on Wednesday when he toured the Chongwe River in the company of area Member of Parliament Japhen Mwakalombe and Lusaka Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Frazier Musonda.
To mitigate the situation, Mr. Lusambo said Government has already started sending water bowsers to affected areas to cushion the water problem.
He said government will do everything possible to find a permanent solution to water problems in Chongwe.
Mr Lusambo said Chongwe River has completely dried up, a situation that has led to the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company to stop supplying water to the residents.
“After this fact finding mission, I can confirm that we have declared the situation a disaster. The situation requires urgent attention and as Government we have moved in to alleviate the sufferings of the people and livestock by putting up boreholes,” Mr Lusambo said.
He added, We have so far sunk 6 boreholes in Mwachiyeya village, 30 KMs from the main water reservoir. The contractor working on this project has done very well and they have so far covered 18KMs remaining with about 7 KMs into the water reservoir so that the people can start accessing normalized clean and safe water supply.”
He said as a short term measure, Government has started providing water bowsers to the residents of Chongwe because of the gravity of the situation.
“Going forward, we will need to dam the Chongwe River because the source of the river has suffered encroachments and some land owners in the area have started creating small artificial dams which are affecting the water reservoir,” Mr Lusambo said.
Look at this bootlicker Bowman he is on govt duty and he is wearing an ECL 2021 scuff …this is why these morons want those NDF bills to go through Parliament so come 2021 this is all you will seeing these foooools touring with Party regalia all over the place on GRZ duty
Do you remember March 21, 2018
Some Lusaka residents under the Chalimbana River Headwaters Conservation Trust have petitioned President Edgar Lungu over fears that developments on one of the few aquifers in Lusaka will lead to the depletion of groundwater resources in the capital city.
Kingsland City located adjacent to Zambia Air Force Twin Palm Base along Twin Palm Road is being developed via a public private partnership between government through ZAF, and three developers, namely; Datong Construction, Drimtown Investments, and Shangria Investments for facility concessions ranging from 20 to 28 years.
Kingsland City, set on 583 hectares of land, will have mixed-use facilities such as hotels, a world class university, conference center, housing, sports complex, amusement park,…
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…, amusement park, vehicle service stations, shopping malls, golf course, and ZAF Academy and Messes among others.
The project is estimated at US$1.4 billion.
During construction phase, over 2, 000 jobs will be created.
But residents of Lusaka’s Chalimbana area have petitioned President Lungu to immediately stop the development as it is encroaching on a Forest Reserve No. 27 which is the source of the main recharge area for the Chalimbana River system.
They contended that the Chalimbana River system is critical to the socio-economic livelihood of the Chongwe and Chalimbana river catchment area.
The residents have since asked President Lungu to take measures to protect and conserve Lusaka East Forest Reserve No. 27 by ordering the immediate stop to the illegal…
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… illegal construction of Kingsland City Project by ZAF.
They have also petitioned President Lungu to cancel and reserve Statutory Instrument No. 62 of 2017 altering the boundaries of Lusaka East Forest Reserve No. 27.
The residents also want President Lungu to order the immediate stop to further additional developments within the boundaries of Local Forest No. 27 Lusaka East as defined in SI No. 161 of 1996.
The petition to President Lungu follows a letter the residents had written to Attorney General Likando Kalaluka last September threatening to sue government for encroaching on a forest reserve where the Zambia Air Force has built staff houses and another developer is turning the land into an affluent suburb.
In a letter addressed to the Attorney General and the…
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… and the Commissioner of Lands and dated September 12, 2017, H.H Ndhlovu and Company stated that their clients, Chalimbana River Headwaters Trust, were shocked that the construction of Kingsland project had begun without an approved environmental assessment.
“The area where the Zambia Air Force houses have been constructed on Twin Palm Road, as well as the location of the recently commenced Kingsland City Project, also on Twin Palm Road is within the Local Forest Reserve No. 27 and there is no record of any legal process that has been undertaken to degazette that forest and change its land use. The Kingsland project as you are aware is a huge project involving multi-purpose activities including housing, hospital, school and various other social and recreational activities…
I’m quite happy that this has happened. In 1994 or thereabouts, Chiluba’s govt was advised not to succumb to pressure to degazette certain forests around Katuba, Chisamba and Ngwerere as they were critical catchment areas for the Chongwe river. More recently there have been the Lusaka multi-facility economic zone and the Zambia Air Force property development. Both these put pressure on Chongwe river. Of course no lesson will be learned from this crisis. That’s just not like us Zambians.
That Lusambo is also a disaster mwee!
Nostradamus: I’m looking @ it beyond Lusambo the person because it will outlast his time in politics.
The dam floor appear to have silted up and as a long term requires desiltation.
Snr Engineer: Is there a dam on the Chongwe river?
Zambia remains at the mercy of the weather despite having the largest water bodies in our region.
We have always said any wobble in either the weather or gobal economy or both , we are in trouble.
We the PF were blowing the $17 billion, they took good weather and sound global economy for granted thinking that will always be the case….
the trend is with all rivers in Zambia.
the Kafue river is slowly “reducing” . global warming effect anyone? that coupled with Zambia’s lack of management of resources spells disaster in the next couple of decades
lungu reads about global warming during the international conferences but doesn’t follow with any mitigating policies
if you drive along some rural roads after 5 years you won’t recognize the places, all big trees have been cut down for malasha, a very unsustainable means of energy…
regrettably the worst is yet to come. you ain’t seen nothing yet
Mukolwe: Very true but the problem goes back to Kaunda’ s time in govt. So spare ECL, love him or loathe him. KK built a military base in Lusaka West in the 1970s and it discharges raw sewage into the Chunga river, a sister river to the Chongwe river bcos they both begin life from the same watershed. The Chunga is a worse case than the Chongwe river.
Don’t worry people his honorable Bowman Lusambo the chief bootlicker to the president of the republic of Zambia Dr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu will has a big heart, has promised to sink a borehole at house as soon as he secures the funds. He’s further challenged other bootlickers on LT to do the same.
As long as we Zambians are obsessed with tackling the man and not the issue Zambia will go nowhere. The issue of Chongwe river drying up started in the 1970s. Several governments were warned about encroachment on the Ngwerere catchment but nothing was done. If it was HH in his red shirt who was touring instead of BL a lot of people would have seen nothing wrong with that. Let us learn to tackle the issue and not the man.
If the law was like that since then who built kitwe presidential house in less than 100 m from the kafue River.