The Kawambwa district council has received K150 million from the Ministry of Local Government and Housing meant for procurement and installation of water pipes in an effort to ease the critical water shortages in the township.
Luapula Province Minister, Boniface Kawimbe disclosed the development in Kawambwa on Friday when he officiated at this year’s Labour Day.
Dr. Kawimbe said the water crisis in Kawambwa district has become a major concern to government hence the allocation of K150 million to help improve water supply in the township.
He said initially, there was no budget for the improvement of water supply in Kawambwa although the Ministry of Local Government on two occasions managed to release K30 million and K40 million towards the project.
He said government has released another K150 million, which he said was just a temporal measure, considering the gravity of the water shortage.
However, Dr Kawimbe said there is a loan facility with BADEA which is an Arabian Development Bank (ADB) that will help solve the water problems in the area once it is accessed.
He said the formation of Luapula Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC), which is almost operational, will attract the loan.
The minister added that this will be a long term solution because the project will be a comprehensive rehabilitation of the whole water system.
Dr. Kawimbe further revealed that apart from Kawambwa, Mansa district will also benefit from the ADB loan, whose funds were already in Bank of Zambia (BoZ).
Kawambwa residents have been facing critical water shortages for a long time and have resorted to drawing water from shallow wells.
The water pipes, which were laid in the 1980s, have outlived their life span hence they burst very often.
In another development, Dr. Kawimbe has called on the business community in to contribute towards repairing of roads in the district.
He said since businessmen and women were part of the community, they should contribute towards the rehabilitation of roads which he said were in a bad state.
Dr. Kawimbe advised the business community to contribute fuels and lubricants for use in the road maintenance machines.
Dr. Kawimbe stated that his office will soon send a unit of road equipment to Kawambwa to help work on some roads in the area.
He also said there was about K450 million allocated for road rehabilitation in Kawambwa district this year, adding the funds are for buying fuel, lubricants and paying officers’ allowances.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kawimbe has thanked councilors in Kawambwa for resolving to use part of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) towards roads rehabilitation in their areas.
He said the contributions of K200 million each from the three constituencies will greatly help in rehabilitating most of the roads in the district.
In a related development, Dr. Kawimbe said Chibalashi bridge on the Kawambwa– Mansa road will soon be repaired to ease transport problems on the route.
ZANIS
nicce move
I hope there will be some improvements, not just wasting the money down the drain.A lot can be done to improve things with the money.
tukalya indelama utuma officials.