Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Minister requests for demolishing of a clinic built on top of a water pipe

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MINISTER of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Lloyd Kaziya has directed Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC) to obtain a court order to demolish a clinic built on top of a water pipe in Ndola’s Hillcrest ward.

The clinic, which is already operational, was built three years ago from Ndola Central constituency development fund.

Speaking to journalists in Ndola, Mr. Kaziya directed KWSC to demolish all other structures built on water and sewer networks.

“Despite the facility being government property constructed using constituency development fund, it was misplaced and a new place to erect another one must be sought.

I have no apologies that we will demolish it because I want to show political will in this matter…I do not want to promote illegality and we also do not want to be in distress to look for money to redirect the networks,” Mr. Kaziya said.

Efforts to get a comment from Ndola Central member of Parliament Emmanuel Mulenga failed by press time as his phone went unanswered.

The Minister has since asked Ndola City Council (NCC) to secure another location where the clinic would be built.

Mr. Kaziya warned that people must keep away from such facilities to avoid disturbing the networks.

He said indiscriminate allocation of plots by local authorities had promoted encroachment on water and sewer networks countrywide.

Mr. Kaziya urged councils to learn from the many challenges the utility companies faced in areas where people had encroached on the utility networks.

And KWSC director of engineering Bernard Phiri said the utility company was concerned over some Ndola residents’ continued encroachment on its facilities.

Mr. Phiri said the encroachment covered a wide range on the banks of Kafubu River and from 21 of its well fields in Minsundu area.

He said if left unattended to, the situation would result in contamination of the company’s water sources.

33 COMMENTS

  1. African way of living! Just building anywhere without approved civil plans, or if approved, corruptly done so and this is the mentality of Zambians nowadays. No care, just build! Just steal!

    • iifi mano’bubi nga HH… the same engineers and council officers will one day in the future want to rule us after messing up.

      Ba koswé iimwé. There’s no logic in that’s sh1thole is there?

    • Our neighbor in village built a house at a site we used to dig pitlatrines and burry dogs, 10years ago.
      I asked elders why on Earth they could allow him. They said he didn’t care. I told the man how toxic that site could be. He had 3 funerals so far, and accuse me for bewitching him, because I warned him in the face.

    • @ governor … it is not that simple to just divert the pipes if you come to think of it.

      They are demolishing it to show as an example. There are thousands of other properties seating on pipes.

      Your simplistic method is on a high cost. Are you going to divert all the pipes in Zambia?

      Oh Please! You guys think people haven’t thought of that? It is actually cheaper to demolish to show everyone that their property is next cause of the law. That’s why the whole country is animal farm.

  2. Wastage of GRZ resources. My first question is who authorized this important project . Secondly did the city/town planning authority approve. Finally who was the engineer

    • @power 90
      First – the project was authorised by a politician (for political gain)
      Second – chipante-pante…. we don’t do city/town planning in Zambia (of course we should)
      Finally – Hey, that’s everyone’s guess…

    • I don’t see any reason of demolishing things, it’s like killing babies born from rape victims.
      People didn’t know that these water companies who connected water to their buildings will turn around…

  3. Eish! why not do a cost benefit analysis? how much will it cost to deviate the pipe or demolishing the clinic and building it somewhere else. Using the polluter pays principle the line Ministry can fund the deviating of the water pipe. Surely it must be cheaper to reroute the pipe line. Mind you Lusaka is lad with a lot of service lines. water, electricity, internet name them.

    • The Cost Benefit Analysis alone will cost more than the building itself… But am sure they already anticipated such an outcry, and they are already anxiously waiting to profit from all this. Deviating the pipe should be the cheapest as demolishing will obviously entail rebuilding.

  4. Sh1th0le Nation zo- ona!
    From the visionless drunk one in Nkwazi House, to the poorest road sweeper, no one knows their @rse from their elbow.
    WASTED YEARS TRULY UPON US. It will take years to demolish, & undo P.F’s shoddy workmanship, & reconstruct Zed in a normal sober manner, before we can lose our well earned Sh1th0le status.

  5. Yes we must lead by example and have the building demolished. Ending there would be denigrating the input both financially and materially derived from the many Tax payers. The best conclusion in my view would be to demolish the authority that sanctioned the building. Treating these guys with kid gloves shall not stop the rot. No wonder the many cases of miss application and failure to account for expenditures knowingly it shall end at press briefing desk. The council officials must explain which came first, the egg or the chicken.

  6. If you are using a public fund, then we, as a public CONDERMED the idea of demolishing the already operational health facility. How many projects have stalled for years now? Reconstructing a clinic will take time or fails. And the same money can be used for other developmental programes, people in rural areas are stil covering more than 20kms to access health cervises. Please carculate the total coast between demolishing and reconstruct onother clinin and diverting the pipes.

  7. This is being very shallow minded. First of all, is the problem that the building lies on top of water pipes or that prerequisite planning and civil works permission was not sought and granted. It is important to acknowledge that it is not wrong for a building to be erected on top of water, electricity or sewer lines, so long the construction takes into account the existence of these lines and the potential need to access them in future as the need arises. The position of the Minister seems to be indicating that he thinks having a building on top of water pipes laid underground is entirely unacceptable.

  8. apf is allergic to orderliness ,Kziya gone because of ordering the demolition of a clinic wrongly located. I hope apf members won’t force you to be expelled from apf!!However, you’re an elected MP but house kuli Mutati nominated,ala Bush’s,Kampamba iyo yellow card,mmdrb HSS taken over.

  9. This clearly shows the importance of a geotechnical investigation…..buried services.The structure is now exerting pressure on the pipes, the increase in surcharge pressure is inducing pressure on the pipes (collapse).The pipe vibrations are inducing soil liquification, eventually speeding up the settlement process of the building in the end a cracked building.

  10. Demolition derby ,
    This guy is 100% wrong in his delivery of the message. Yes that structure shouldn’t have been there, secondly he’s nonsense of political bs is weak. He should have helped or make an effort to secure a building temporary while they are building a new one than just making noise without a solution. Zambian politicians are shallow minded and no vision except stealing.

  11. WELL THE MAN DESERVED TO BE FIRED DEMOLISHING A CLINIC IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY LIKE ZAMBIA?ON THIS ONE THE PRESIDENT WAS OK.THAT IS WHAT HAS COST HIM THAT JOB.A PIPE IS LESS IMPORTANT THAT HUNDREDS OF LIVES.

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