A cholera outbreak is looming at Miseshi market in Kitwe due to lack of toilets and running water at the trading facility.
A check by ZANIS revealed that the toilets have been closed due to unavailability of running water while marketeers and bar patrons are using toilets from nearby houses while others use packets of opaque beer to answer the call of nature.
The market is also littered with heaps of uncollected garbage which is producing a bad stench around the area.
Kitwe District Commissioner Binwell Mpundu, who also toured the market, expressed displeasure at the state of the trading area.
Mr. Mpundu directed the Miseshi councillor Douglas Moyo to work in collaboration with the Kitwe city council and Nkana Water and Sewerage Company to ensure that water supply is reconnected to the market toilets.
He said the Mr. Moyo should also ensure that there is consistent collection of garbage from the market.
Mr. Mpundu said it was unacceptable for a market to lack running water when it was accommodating a lot of marketeers and bars, which regularly need water.
And some marketeers that spoke in separate interviews appealed to government to compel Nkana Water and Sewerage Company to immediately reconnect water supply to the market to avoid a possible outbreak of cholera.
Speaking on behalf of other marketeers, Annie Tandeo appealed to Kitwe District Commissioner, who visited the market on a fact finding mission after receiving reports on the challenges the traders were facing, to direct the council to clear the heap of garbage.
Ms. Tandeo also complained of rampant thefts at the market which she said was retrogressive to their business.
And area Councillor Douglas Moyo assured the marketeers that he was going to work with the water utility company and the local authority to ensure that the market is provided with all the necessary services that they complained about.
Mr. Moyo has meanwhile urged the marketeers to feel free to go to his house to report any problem that they were facing in his ward.
However, some resident complained that Mr. Moyo was not aware of the challenges the people in the ward were facing because he had been away from the area for a long time.
The residents challenged him to open an office within the market premises where people can easily reach him.
Waiting Lungu to go help clean it up as usual .
Clueless Lungu has failed to come up with an effective sanitation system in the country, and this is the result. Once Cholera breaks out and poor Zambians begin to die in hundreds, that’s when you’ll see clueless Lungu panicking and rushing to Kitwe to pose for pictures as he collects garbage. So there’s really no hope for Zambia to ever get clean, as long as clueless Lungu remains in office. He visits real clean countries around the world, but unfortunately never learns from them—how they manage to keep their countries clean. Now he’s telling diplomats to help him market Zambia…honestly, what’s there to market? Filthy cities? Vote this lazy guy out of office in 2021—unless you want to see Zambia continue to be the dirtiest country in Africa. What a shame.
And where is the area market leadership committee team to settle the outstanding water bill..? Nkana Water and Sewerage company is a profit making company which is expected to pay salaries and settle operational bills. Surprisingly the market is a business area that makes money. So, why don’t they settle water bills..?
Pa Zed also..? It is purely caucus..!
Waiting for Jono menomeno to do his job
What beats me always is how adults who have a premises to work from expect someone else to pick up their c.r.a.p after them. It just doesn’t make sense anymore. Come on people – meet your council functionaries halfway at the very least! Iyee mayo – takwaba fye!
all this is due to lazy corrupt lungu who needs photo opportunities to show he is working while cleaning….
I blame the corrupt thief lungu because he holds no one accountable, no one is disciplined or fired for such gross dereliction of duty
If you build your house, do you wait for president Lungu to put up a toilet? Those blaming the president for this are just sponsored opportunists. We have these situations because there are no consequences for people in charge of these markets. Those in charge should be fired for incompetence. We really need to move away from the culture of just collecting money and forgetting about maintenance and sanitation. where are trading standards? it should become law that places not fit for purpose should be shut down. Zambian city councils only exist in name, toothless to do anything and one wonders why government wastes money putting these chaps on the payroll.
Just close the market and bars then clean toilets and connect water supply , then think you can open business if not fit then game over as you cannot risk the lives of people .