Maravi

Water shortage persists in Chingola’s Chiwempala township

Water shortage persists in Chingola’s Chiwempala township
By Zumani Katasefa
Sun 16 May 2010, 04:40 CAT

THE shortage of water in Chingola’s Chiwempala township has persisted.
Chitimukulu ward Patriotic Front (PF) councillor McDonald Mulongoti said the people in the township have had no water for the last ten days.

“The situation is pathetic. The people of Chiwempala have now gone without water for ten days, but the rest of the district has water,” Mulongoti said.

He urged relevant authorities to move in quickly and control the situation.
He said if the problem was left unchecked there would be an outbreak of a water borne disease.

Mulongoti said Chikola, Chiwempala site service and Shabanyama had also been affected by the shortage of water. He said people were running out of patience as the problem had persisted.

He said there was no way people could continue drinking water from the contaminated shallow wells.

Mulongoti said it was unfortunate that people could not have access to water when they were living in a rich town like Chingola which houses one of the biggest mining firms in Zambia.

Some residents threatened to take to the streets if the problem continued.

One of the residents said it was sad that very little attention was paid to address the problem.

“We cannot go for ten days without water, we are appealing to our leaders to urgently look into the matter,” said the resident who declined to be named.

On Wednesday, Mulonga Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) managing director Emmanual Mutale confirmed the water shortage.

“The problem is that we are receiving inadequate supply of raw water to treat, from KCM Konkola Copper Mines, the other thing is that residents are vandalising water pipes but we are trying hard to normalise the situation,” he said.

Mutale said MWSC had apologised to the residents for the inadequate water supply in the district.

Labels: WATER

posted by MrK @ 4:34 AM