Lusaka in a sanitation crisis – Lusaka Deputy Mayor

Lusaka Deputy Mayor Chitangala Chilando

Lusaka Deputy Mayor Chitangala Chilando says Lusaka is suffering from a sanitation crisis.

Speaking when she opened a one day Editor’s Awareness workshop on Lusaka Sanitation Program in Kafue today, Ms Chilando says this crisis claims lives through annual outbreaks of Cholera and Dysentery and causes severe environmental pollution.

She says access to sanitation is particularly lower in peri-urban settlements as sanitation provision is generally let to the residents who mostly use and unsafe pit latrines of which most of them are in poor conditions.

Ms Chilando says sanitation and hygiene is key to human development and that this is why the government has focused on improving sanitation not only in Lusaka but all provinces.

She notes that with the population of Lusaka projected to grow to close to five million by 2030, the challenge of sanitation will significantly increase.

And speaking earlier Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company Interim Managing Director Manuel Mutale says once the sanitation project is complete, the quality of life will drastically improve for the people of Lusaka.

He says water related illnesses will also reduce because people will no longer resort to unsafe alternatives because of lack of safe and clean water.

The Lusaka Sanitation program in being financed by the European Investment Bank, the Germany Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the World Bank.