Bishop Eddy Chomba has revealed that Government has invested $8 million in the construction of 10 dams in six provinces from last year to date to boost irrigation and wildlife preservation.
Government through the Ministry of Water Development plans to construct 15 more dams at the cost of $15 million throughout the country.
Speaking in an interview Ministry of Water Development Permanent Secretary in charge of Water Supply Bishop Eddy CHOMBA said that so far 10 dams have been constructed in Southern, Luapula, Copperbelt, Western, North-Western and Eastern Provinces.
He further said that most of the dams constructed were in Southern province and the Ministry hoped that these dams would help beef up the Livestock sector in the province.
“Majority of the dams have been constructed in Southern province, to cater for the people that are into animal husbandry. There is need for the country to improve on livestock rearing so that the country can start exporting part of the beef,” Bishop Chomba said.
Bishop Chomba also explained that the dams that were being built were all demand-driven and meant specifically for dry parts of the country.
Bishop Chomba was pleased that the Government had constructed dams in almost every part of the country except for Lusaka province. He was however quick to point out that the province would also receive it’s fair share once the $50 million loan was cleared by the World Bank.
The Permanent Secretary also said that it was the Ministry’s plan to build 100 small and medium size dams dotted around the whole country.
“We need to construct more water storage space. Our plan is to build 100 small and medium size dams throughout the country by 2030,” he said.
Bishop Chomba emphasized the need to build these dams saying that they would also act as reservoirs for water harvesting purposes in times of drought to cater for power generation.
Bishop Chomba bemoaned the current situation were Zambia receives 160 billion cubic metres of water yet only retains about 60 billion cubic metres with the rest being lost into the Indian Ocean.
Good job BOMA. Thats development, not CNP hallucinations
But do you need a $50m loan from World Bank for your developing?
I was getting impressed until I reached ………”…also receive it’s fair share once the $50 million loan was cleared by the World Bank..”
even to build a toilet PF will borrow money…
These are reckless fooools I tell you they brag about investing a mere $8 million dollars which is laughable when you look at what was wasted in AG’s report yet are going to contract a loan for an unknown interest …really reckless fooools by 2022 everything will go to debt servicing!!
“He was however quick to point out that the province would also receive it’s fair share once the $50 million loan was cleared by the World Bank.”
There it is ..I browsed through the article to see where the word loan was as these reckless foooools can never budget for anything as important as this; they would rather spend cash; $42 million on overpriced Fire Trucks and $6million on invisible products.
Why is this minister still using the title of Bishop…who is he trying to dupe!!
I’d think the priority is power generation. But it seems like Dams are for livestock and irrigation.
We should be going for solar power generation farms in rural areas especially in areas where there is its mainly for domestic usage like western province….