Millennium Challenge Project wraps up
Written by Millennium on August 8, 2019
Diana Nsofwa writes
THE Millennium Challenge Project Completion Agency (MPCA) says it has completed the United State funded $355 million project aimed at responding to the water and sanitation needs of parts of Lusaka.
In an interview with the Sun, Communication and Outreach Director John Kunda the said Lusaka city had a water supply and sanitation facility deficit that needed a greater amount of investment to address.
Dr Kunda disclosed that the Lusaka Water Sewerage Company (LWSC), the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and the African Bank, have also invested additional money under the Lusaka Sanitation Project to try and expand the sewerage coverage in Lusaka.
“Compounds in Lusaka, like Mtendere and Kanyama, have been growing without appropriate water and sanitation facilities. They began without water supply and sanitation services but certain places have plants and there are very few” he said.
“20,000 households in Mtendere Township will be connected to the sewer system to get rid of pit latrines. This is being done to protect ground water, especially in the Mass Media area, to stop it from mixing with fecal matter,” he said.
“Most areas in Mtendere have already started receiving water but we are yet to inaugurate the sanitation system,” said Dr Kunda.
“We rehabilitated the Kafue treatment plant which lost its design capacity but we have managed to restore it to its original capacity. We also have a number of transmission lines which have been installed in Lusaka,” he said.
“We have inaugurated the Kwamwena Ndeke Water Valley System, all 14,000 households now have clean and safe water every day. We commissioned the Chelstone reservoir which is a 5 million litre tank constructed at a cost of 3.6 million USD” he said.
“This project will service Avondale and Chainda. Chelstone has a shortage of water supply but with the 5 million litre reservoir we should see a good provision of water in those areas,” he said.
“Getting rid of the need for people having to go look for water which is not just a health concern but a safety issue and it also robs people of the time to either study or spend time on business activities in productive economic endeavors”.
“We are providing proper safe sanitation services aside that we are seeking to reduce non-revenue water which is current about 50%”.
“We are working on improving company’s capacity management of assets. There’s been institutional strengthening project where we are building the capacity of LWSC to manage its assets for proper maintenance, operations, customer care, customer support but also having a clear data base where all systems are integrated and to make it easier for billing and maintenance said Dr Kunda”.
