Friday, March 29, 2024

OYDC swimming pool now ready for Zone 6 games

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The completed Olympic Youth Development Centre,swimming pool

After a frantic four days of filling up water in the newly constructed swimming pool at the Olympic Youth Development Centre, management at the center have confirmed that the facility is now ready for the Zone 6 games.

Many feared that the OYDC swimming pool whose construction commenced only three months ago would not be ready for the Zone 6 games which starts off this week.

However OYDC Director Clement Chileshe confirmed that the pool is now ready for use and was scheduled to be handed over to the Ministry of Sports Monday afternoon.

“We have set a record of putting up this world class facility in three months, many people thought we would not be able to achieve this but due to close cooperation and hard work, we have succeeded,” said Chileshe.
He said the pool required around 4 million litres of water and management had to seek help from other government departments and the defence wings to fill up the pool.

“The water requirement was too much for Lusaka Water and Sewerage, so we had to call for reinforcements from ZAF, ZNS and the Army including the private sector for us to get the requirements amounts of water to fill up the pool.”

“As we are speaking, the electronic board is working perfectly, the warm up area is ready and we are just waiting for the hand over.”

He said the new swimming pool could be rated as one of the best in Africa adding that Zambia should be proud that it now has world class sporting venues.
Zambia hosts the 5th edition of the Supreme Council of Sports in Africa Zone Six Games will run from December 4 to 17.

52 COMMENTS

  1. EVEN AFTER THE GAMES, THIS FACILITY WILL GENERATE BILLIONS FOR THE COUNCIL AND OTHER AUTHORITIES ONCE PROPERLY MANAGED. EVEN CONSTRUCT A STATE-OF-THE-ART THEATRE AND CINEMAS TO ADD MORE VALUE TO THE PLACE TO BRING MORE PEOPLE TO THE PLACE.

  2. i wonder where ba Watch Dog got that photo they woodwinked people with that with six days to go the pool had no even tiles. Ubufi nabwena huu, i wonder what lie will be created now. Whay cant you just give us true news you reporters and allow us to make our opinins

    • See the picture in yesterdays Post, they were saying the venue wont be ready for this coming weekend opening ceremony. 

    • Its a 50 meter long pool and requires 4 million litters of water to fill up. Recall that there was a story of Lusaka Water and Sewerage/UTH failing to supply enough water to UTH?? bottom line, LWSC couldnt have pumped (doesnt have capacity right now!) enough water to the facility within the few days to the kick off of the games..

  3. #8 i am was thinking the same thing.  Good work Looks like Sata’s work pool was built in 90 days and is of international standard. If it was the MMD and RB in power they would have refuse the opportunity to host and said take it to Mozambique like they did for the All Africa games. Good job government.

    • Imwe ba Trigo, the decision to host was not made by your president, why do you like stealing credit where it is not due. Let your PF start their own things. Shameless cadres, the country is worse off than it was in MMD regime and you are busy ar** licking. Malabishi

    • Ba Kachingwe 2 ever since PF came in to power news is now less painful to read than when RB was in Power/ If you remember well when His excellency LPM announced that Zambia will host the All Africa games some ministers in his government didn’t like it because of the work involved, most Zambians like money not work.Yet he stood by it and yet after he died among the first things they did under RB was cancelling to host. The same with wind fall tax when investors complained that they wont pay LPM simply said “if you dont pay the law will visit you” unfortunately before the law could visit them he had died.LPM’s reign was a good MMD reign.Sata’s reign is a good PF reign,Lets give credit where its due. By the way am non partisan i support those who do the right thing

    • Ba Kachingwe I agree with ba Desai Banda above, its like he has the same line of thought as myself. I believe that the government has to agree to host the games apart from a sports body agreeing to do so,.

  4. Wow this is really cool!!!
    BUT how many Zambian youths can actually swim? I was privileged to take swimming lessons at ‘Kalulushi Recreation Club’ back in the days when miners got free “kampompo’s”.. my dad has still kept my swimming certificate!

    I hope there wont be any drownings.

    • You can enlist as a life saver, Mr Freestyler! And remember to now keep your own certificates. You must be a father if not a granpa by now! (lol)

    • You can enlist as a life saver, Mr Freestyler! And remember to now keep your own certificates. You must be a father if not old enough to be a granpa by now! (lol)

  5. Matolokoshi, for as long as you do not vandalize it. Obviously the watchdog will send their carders to do the needful, maybe you are one of them.

  6. I am shocked. Can filling up water ina pool be a problem? Zambia, lets be serious ala.
    Nice facility though. But ensure that you maintain it after the games and dont vandalise it.

  7. Excelent piece of work. its true that other week they were still putting tiles in the pool. but you know how the chinese work. to them every second counts , nowander they differ with our zambian brothers who have a british working culture of cofee break every after two hours of work. zambian structures are now shinning en honourable.

    • sup coach Joe. It’s me Wesley. I just wanted to talk and tell you I had a great time at the All Stars meet. I wish our coach had your sense of humor and a blog like yours, but beggres can’t be choosers. I really want to get to get to know you and the ather All Star swimmers better(and see Lukes dads pictures of the belly flop contest). Contact me at the E-mail I put . See ya!

  8. Beautifull piece! I was thinking a swiming pool is filled by water by some pipe from the main water source?OYDC does have a borehole shuwa!!

  9. LUSAKA WATCHDOG ARE LAIRS. IT IS THREE DAYS AGO THEY REPORTED THE FOUNDATION OF THIS SWIMMING POOLS AND SAYING THE ZONE SIX WILL BE A FLOP. I WONDER IF THERE IS ANYTHING TO BELIEVE IN THEIR REPORTING. THANKS LUSAKA TIMES, BE FACTUAL AND CARRY ON WITH RESEARCH JOURNALISM. WATCHDOGS KEEPS ALARMING PEOPLE FOR NOTHING.

  10. I have a question, are Zambian watch dogs Zambian? Strange though, they say “success is the sweetest revenge”! Keep it up all you involved in developing our lovely Zambia, these competitions will not ony generate some profits but also write history. Shame on you ZWD!

  11. I had mentioned it that wherever you go in countries hosting events, you find them doing last minute touches and they always succeed, not that they have failed!!! Biggup Mr. Chileshe, Watchdog, tell us something else. please!!!

    • its just a pool whats exciting about it, are we going to drink from that people when people in rural ares still get water from holes and yet some people find it worth praising over a ditch covered with tiles filled with borrowed water. we want real issues to be addressed like the mealie meal issue.

  12. interesting it had to take ZNS, ARMY and PRIVATE SECTOR to fill up the simple.my question is what will happen if the water is dirty/ contaminated and needs changing? are they going to call again on the above mentioned. Isn’t a pool supposed to have its own water sources? i find this method unsustainable.

    • Did you want them to pump all the water they have from the well and stay without water for the rest of the period of the Zone 6 games.The period was too short to fill the pool, hence the calling in of the defense forces.

  13. #18 , its just a pool whats exciting about it, are we going to drink from that people when people in rural ares still get water from holes and yet some people find it worth praising over a ditch covered with tiles filled with borrowed water. we want real issues to be addressed like the mealie meal issue.

    • My brother, see positive in all things, they say “those who dont appreciate small things, will never appreciate even bigger things”! by the way am not excited just appreciate when i see pipo working and not just talking for nothing, or man handling grand fathers for dirty politics, i would rather look at that pool than those heart breaking fotos of a human being abusing another for survival of the fittest! So one love to you.

  14. WHy are some people so easily excited? We had all these facilities before in several Zambian towns. The problem has always been lack of maintenance. We seem to think completing a building is the end and forget that it is a beginning of another equally important phase of proper maintenance & improvements.

  15. I would appreciate if bitterman and watchdog retrieve the picture which was shown of the same pool last week, we need to compare and tell who is lying!

  16. I even commented that,”twasebana”,and was getting ready to be laughed at by my South African workmate here in the DRC who occasionally laughs at me for our sub standard roads, kanshi fyabufi.

  17. Good work …why do we still maintain these 1960’s concrete outdated designs and terraces with no seats…incorporate British or Australian  Pool Architects for state of the art refurbishments. I hope that the games as a success but as a revenue stream for the City council I do not see how this is possible given that LWSC can not satisfy the water demand. 

  18. Good as it may be we should learn to be organised and do things in advance…why should we be a last minute type of organisers…what if the pool develops problems before even the games start…how do you expect your sports men and women to compete favorably with a swimming pool that they just use during the competetion…bad work culture that our country needs to reform from. these facilities should have been ready months ago

  19. I thought the Watchgalu said the pool wouldn’t be ready. They even had pictures showing the pool at a very retrogressed stage- Ati Nsoni

  20. hey guys crying over watchdog. but why didnt the government dispute the claim as they always do. just be thankful that the job was done in time. how long would it take even the least experienced builder to patch up tiles or bricks over that 50 squre meters that wasnt yet done? 4hrs is enough. there were so many structures that looked far from finished. did u see the picture of un finished dressing rooms at Nkoloma in the post two days ago? the roof wasnt even done by sataday but today the complete structure was handed over to the government.

  21. Great the pool is finished and ready to be used for the games. Well  done PF government. As for the Watch galu, let it rot in its grudge and shame…shaaaa.

    Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.

  22. Nice work but let’s wait and see the condition of this pool a year from now They will be frogs and ba tombolilo in there. Who runs LWSC kanshi ? What kind of a country struggles to supply it’s citizens with basic necessities like water and electricity? If it’s not LWSC , it’s ZESCO. So much for money in your pockets

  23. I like to watch programmes like ‘Extreme Make Over – Home Edition’ where beautiful houses are put up in just under 7 seven days. Project Management principles play a big role in any endeavours.

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