Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company has started water rationing in Lusaka District due to the ongoing load shedding management by ZESCO limited.
Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company Managing Director, Billy Chiyombwe says the decision stems from critical factors of the impacts of drought affecting Southern Africa in general, Zambia inclusive.
Mr Chiyombwe said the adverse effects of climate change has a huge impact on underground water sources.
“In view of the ongoing electricity supply constraints on our water production and distribution facilities, and concerns about the declining underground water levels due to drought, it has affected our ability to produce and sustain consistent water supply as required, “he said.
Mr Chiyombwe explained that the utility company’s regular production capacity is approximately 330 million liters of water per day against a demand of 480 million.
He noted that 53 percent is surface water from the Kafue River and that 47 is groundwater sources through strategically positioned boreholes.
Mr Chiyombwe further noted that on average, LWSC is losing slightly more than eight hours of production pay day due to load management programme and that supply hours have dropped from 18 hours to 10 hours per day.
“Our dependence on electric powered pumping systems for both surface and groundwater renders us particularly vulnerable to disruptions in power supply from the ZESCO grid,” he said.
Mr Chiyombwe added that with the effects of climate change on hydro power availability, LWSC has settled for solar as alternative energy with about five sites already on solar to mitigate the effects of load shedding on water supply.
He said additionally the water utility company has installed diesel generators as backup units on all sewer pumping stations, describing it as a costly move.
Mr Chiyombwe also said LWSC has established a communication channel and is in constant engagement with ZESCO over load management and that critical LWSC facilities have been exempted from load shedding.
He explained that the exempted facilities include the Lolanda one and two water treatment plants in Kafue, Chilanga booster station and Libala water works among others.
Mr Chiyombwe further announced that due to the negative impact of climate change, the water utility company has instituted mitigation strategies such as infrastructure upgrade, water conservation campaigns and customer engagement.
Eishhhhhh, mmmmmm!!!!!. ilipolipo zoona
Lusaka is now got more that 10000 boreholes across the city. there is no sewerage system in Woodlands, New kasama, Nothing in Chalala, the shanties( Bauleni, Kanyama, kalingingalinga, Ngombe chawama etc) all depend on pit latrines. The problem now is that Lusaka underground water is contaminated with feacal matter. And yu wonder why there is cholera year in year out. What a city! A feacal city!
The system is slowly grinding to a halt:
1. No power – Zesco has collapsed( MD has run)
2.Fuel Crisis- ERB Board chair Fired and next should be KAPALA.
3.Water Shortage- please fire the minister WATER.
4. Kwacha naipena- Why is Musokotwane still thye minister of Finance>?
5. Councils are stealing CDF ……..Gary Nkombo still minster.
6. Exports of Maize has caused food crisis- Just Fire Mutolo Phiri.
7. Interfeering in FAZ( FIFA sanctions looming)- Elvis does not deserve to be minister( Better at ZANAMA)
@Onserver
The system is slowly grinding to a halt:
The system is not going to grind to a halt. The US $33 billion debt that your tribesmen, Lungu and Satan, got us in, has begun to deliver fruit for American and Europe, as they are now using it to extract an arm and a leg from our country.
The Americans and the Europeans are going to dig holes in the ground, take away the Tonga owned nickel in Southern Province, steal all the Lunda cobalt and copper, and any gold that will be found anywhere. Thank Lungu and Satan for putting Zambia in this position
Onserver May 14, 2024 At 3:55 pm
The system is slowly grinding to a halt:
1. No power – Zesco has collapsed( MD has run)
Zesco cannot collapse. It is the only company that has made money than mining in the history of Zambia. This is not the first time rain has failed in Zambia. When this happened under your tribalistic tribesman Chiluba, he used the opportunity to destroy agriculture in Southern Province, and to let 2 million Tonga owned cows die by a disease that never happened under Kaunda, while he tried to give free cattle to his tribesmen.
@Onserver May 14, 2024 At 3:55 pm
The system is slowly grinding to a halt:
2.Fuel Crisis- ERB Board chair Fired and next should be KAPALA.
Those people were appointed by your tribalistic presidents, from their own tribes. That is how you roll. And when things go haywire, you blame the nearest Tonga. Again, the fuel crisis may affect you now, but Zambia is going to have US $7 billion to spend thisyear, thanks to the Debt Deal that deferred US $4.5 of the debt payments due from Zambia this year. The IMF has to micromanage everything, but the money is going to be spent
When you have thieves like Michael Satan, Edgar Lungu, Frederick Chipuba and Simon Mwewa running the country and city, this was bound to happen. So the water table in Lusaka is now contaminated with feaces. It not their land, they only care to steal from and sell this Tonga land of Lusaka to foreigners. As you can see, they have never sold land in their provinces. They have used it to build tribal universities, hospitals and other infrastructure. The contamination of the water table is a very serious issue. It took thousands of year for that water to accumulate, and now it is full of their feaces since they are the ones who live in Lusaka. Sad, sad, sad.
I am not responding to any more economic questions. The tribalists have sold us to the IMF, as they sold other Africans to Arabs during the slave trade. The IMF will run the Zambian economy how they will run it.
@Onserver May 14, 2024 At 3:55 pm
7. Interfeering in FAZ( FIFA sanctions looming)- Elvis does not deserve to be minister( Better at ZANAMA)
I am glad that Zambia is refusing to be intimidated by FIFA. No foreign organisation is going to place itself above courts of Zambia. FIFA demanded that the evidence of FAZ President Andrew Kamanga’s thievery be given to them to decide. When FAZ took the bonus money that FIFA had given the Zambian female national for qualifying to the World Cup, there was nothing the government could do. When Kamanga embezzled money the Zambian government had given to FAZ, the government was right to prosecute his ass. To hell with FIFA
Rationing water and power? Come on HH,we need a solution.your doing good but there has to be a answer..and fast!!!
@American in Zambia…. you created this puppet, HH. Now get to work and pull some puppet strings on him. See, when you create a puppet, you eventually get affected too when the puppet fails to perform, since you live in Zambia. Give your puppet some aid money to fix the economic issues, or your puppet loses the election in 2026.
Beloved Zambia, where is our planning and why have we just discovered this now? We have solar and wind energy. Instead of buying a vehicle for monitoring CDF we should have created constituency solar plants that would give us more energy but look where we are now. Its not attacking the UPND but this is unfortunate for Lusaka as the capital city of Zambia. Its best to move to rural Zambia
Man CDF is a conduit of something else…they build ka classroom block, paint nicely but the truth is the reported cost is very far above the real cost….MoF himself said something to that effect.
Everyday they are showing off on FB.
It’s a vicious circle.
Things Fall Apart
All comes down to poor storage ?? why mention Southern Africa ? passing the blame on again ???
TYPICAL
These days you are even scared to read the news because of fear of what other thing will be increased or rationed. If HH had away, he have started charging us for breathing while he gives away our to white people for free.
HH has no clue as to what he’s doing. He is currently the worst President Zambia has had the misfortune to have. We thought nobody could beat corrupt lazy Lungu in being the worst president, but HH has outdone him in being the worst, clueless President. The standard of living in Zambia has plummeted faster than a roller coaster at a theme park. Zambians should make sure this guy loses in 2026, or else the country is doomed.