THE Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has embarked on a project to place 32,500 identification numbers on residential and commercial properties in Lusaka and four other major towns.
The national addressing and postcode project is aimed at capturing address details of all properties countrywide for the establishment of a national address database.
ZICTA has embarked on the national addressing and postcode project in Chingola, Kabwe, Kitwe, Ndola and Lusaka.
ZICTA national addressing and postcode project administrator Kaunda Chisha said in an interview yesterday that 6,500 properties will be numbered in each of the five towns under the first phase of the project.
Mr Chisha said the project will not only help to curb crime in communities but also facilitate easy delivery of mail and other services to individual households through clearly identifiable residential addresses.
He said ZICTA is working closely with councils in five towns to ensure the national addressing and postcode project yields the anticipated results.
“I am happy to announce that 6,500 properties will be numbered in each of the five towns. Property and street naming is very important for easy identification. We need to have an effective addressing system to help curb crime.
“ZICTA will come up with one form of numbering for easy identification. This will also make it easy for the police to easily access houses and business entities under attack by criminals,” Mr Chisha said.
He said addresses will have street and property names of deceased individuals that have contributed greatly to communities and the nation.
He said ZICTA will not accept naming of streets after people that are still living.
“We are not going to accept names of people who are still alive. We don’t want streets to be named after living persons to avoid a situation where the same people will end up committing crimes in future.
“We would like to appeal to people to co-operate with the project teams that will be going door-to-door for data collection and verification. They should also protect national infrastructure from vandalism,” Mr Chisha said.
This is an ambitious and excellent project. I hope the people in charge will remain focused and receive the required support financially and otherwise to see it through. This is good
This project is good long over due though. It means that when you need to identify a property you will not say Wood-gate house Cairo road rather #35 Cairo road 3R C6Y, Lusaka. Now the notion that you cannot name streets after living people is nonsense. Pick noble and eminent people say Grey Zulu road, Enoch Kavindele road, Malimba Masheke road, Robinson Nabulyato road what crime are you talking about?
The argument about naming things after living people is valid insofar as they do not take political mileage or otherwise out of the same this applies to stamps coins and banknotes!
You need to work closely with local councils so that unplanned properties will not be allowed otherwise this will end up confusing everything!
Thats right, work with local councils on this project. Specify how big a region, block etc will be. what will be the standard dimension of a property in certain locations so that the system will not fail with future developments. But i guess, you have already taken these into consideration.
Bravo!!!!
Is this a prelude to installation of cameras in these areas? The Post Office system is on its death bed and unless there is a new initiative to get people to write letters en mass I don’t see why resources should be diverted to this exercise. Re-zoning in an effort to regularize squatter residential areas would make more sense.
Which are the other towns?
They are still embarking? They have been embarking on this project for years.