Cholera deaths sadden Green Party
THE Green Party says it is saddened over 41 cholera deaths in Lusaka.
Party president Peter Sinkamba regretted that the epidemic had wreaked havoc in the last three months and there was no justification for cholera or any sanitation related outbreak to claim lives in Zambia, 53 years after independence.
Mr. Sinkamba attributed the recurrence of cholera in Lusaka and other parts of Zambia to poor implementation of sanitation policies, especially the National Solid Waste Management Strategy of 2004.
“It is extremely sad that 41 lives have been lost so far since October and it’s also regrettable that over 1,500 people have been hit by cholera,” Mr. Sinkamba said.
The opposition leader said cholera, like polio, could be easily eradicated.
“I was one of the architects of the National Solid Waste Management Strategy which we developed from 2001 to 2004 under the auspices of the Environmental Council of Zambia, now called Zambia Environmental Management Agency. We developed the strategy to ensure that Zambia establishes a coordinated approach to sound solid waste management in the entire country,” Mr. Sinkamba said.
He said the strategy’s main objective was to eradicate perennial outbreaks of epidemics like cholera and dysentery, as well as to control water and air pollution; and land contamination.
“However, 14 years after the strategy was developed, it is disgraceful that there is still so much domestic and industrial waste which lies uncollected especially in the major urban and peri-urban areas,” Mr. Sinkamba said.
The opposition leader said lack of political-will to finance environmental programmes was a cancer which would continue devastating lives.