Water supply to Lusaka townships improves

Lusaka Province Deputy Permanent Secretary, Alex Mapushi, says government is happy with the improvement in water supply to townships in Lusaka.

Mr Mapushi says there has been an increase in the supply of water to townships in Lusaka by the Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company since the Iolanda Water Works plant in Kafue was commissioned.

He says water supply in Lusaka has increased from 60 to 70 percent, ending water blues that were experienced in some parts of Lusaka.

Mr Mapushi was speaking during a familiarisation tour of the Iolanda Water Works plant in Kafue recently.

“We have more people being supplied with water from the Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company and that has increased from 60 percent to 70 percent,” he said.

He added that some areas in Lusaka now have water supply 24 hours a day.

Mr Mapushi has since appealed to the people of Lusaka to conserve the water by using it wisely and ensuring all taps are closed when not in use.

He added that government is considering replicating the technology at Iolanda Water Works on the Kafue river to other water bodies such as the Lusemfwa and Luangwa rivers.

“We cannot only rely on Kafue for our source of water. We have other water bodies that we can utilize, like Lusemfwa river, Luangwa river, which I am aware dries up at some time but we want to see how we can harvest the water during the rain season,” Mr. Mapushi said.

Speaking during the same tour, Lusaka Water Supply Acting Manager, Angela Phiri, said the new installations at the Iolanda Water plant have enabled the water utility company to move away from rationing water supply to the townships in Lusaka.

Ms Phiri also disclosed that the Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company, through the help of African Development Bank (ADB), will be facilitating a scheme for the construction of additional streams for scaling up water production from Iolanda.

“Some of the boreholes have been abandoned because of contamination. We want to move from ground water sources to surface water sources because then, water quality is guaranteed,” Mrs Phiri said.