Maravi

LWSC to become provincial utility

LWSC to become provincial utility
By Maluba Jere
Wednesday January 23, 2008 [03:00]

LOCAL government minister Sylvia Masebo has announced that the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) will become a provincial water utility covering all districts effective February 1, 2008. And the government has sourced K85 billion from the World Bank to go towards infrastructure rehabilitation under the water sector performance improvement project.

At a press briefing yesterday, Masebo said transforming LWSC to a provincial water utility firm was in line with the national water policy and the national water and sanitation Act of 1997.

She said the formation of utilities had to be in phases in order to make them manageable.

“The provincial utilities are joint ventures owned by the covered district councils,” she said. “They are therefore parastatals owned by the local authorities to deliver water supply and sanitation services on behalf of the government, whose mandate is to manage the country and provide basic services to the population.”

She explained that the institutional reform was supported by a capital programme to rehabilitate and expand services in all urban centres.

Masebo said the government had decided to complete the commercialisation of urban water and sanitation services in all the provinces so that all of them could be serviced by regional or provincial utilities.

“In this regard, Lusaka Province shall have only one utility company covering Kafue, Lusaka, Chongwe and Luangwa. Similarly, Eastern and Luapula provinces will each have one utility company each covering all the districts,” she said.

Masebo said the new provincial utility company would provide a better avenue for the government to plan and channel investments for new water and sanitation infrastructure in the province as a whole.

And Masebo said another K1.5 billion had been sourced from the treasury to beef up the projects.

“The K1.5 billion has since been released to initiate improvements in the remaining districts, whilst government scouts for more resources to support this exercise,” said Masebo.

Labels: LWSC, SYLVIA MASEBO

posted by MrK @ 6:27 AM