Water facilities require urgent facelift - Parley

THERE is urgent need to upgrade water infrastructure as the country is losing the muchneeded resource through dilapidated facilities, parliamentary committee on Energy, Water Development and Tourism has said.

Committee chairman Ephraim Mpelembe said water utility firms should work hard to improve water management and distribution to avoid unnecessary loss of the resource through leakages.

Mr Mpelembe who is Mbabala Member of Parliament said this when he and seven other committee members toured KWSC projects in Masaiti and Luanshya districts.

“We are losing water unaccounted, issues around billing, we have issues around infrastructure and human resources. These are areas that still need to be tackled. There is a lot of work that needs to be done.

"Overall, we are impressed with massive investment coming from cooperating partners and also from loans. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in the area of water and sanitation across the country,” he said.

Mr Mpelembe said therefore that the committee would sit and make recommendations that would be presented once parliament began sitting. He regretted that water was becoming a scarce resource despite it being in abundance in sources and added that utility firms should take care of all sources and areas with potential to supply water.

Meanwhile, the committee has urged Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company

KWSC) to secure title for land where the entire network sits on the Copperbelt.

Mr Mpelembe said the utility company should immediately get documentation for the land on which the system sits to protect the facilities from encroachment and also ensure legal ownership is documented.

He said the utility company should be proactive and secure land and infrastructure as well as all project sites to ensure areas were protected.

And KWSC Manager Planning and Development Paul Billima said the company would this month-end hand over the 44 out of 268 houses constructed for the people who have been compensated in Masaiti where

Kafulafuta dam is being constructed.

Mr Billima said the beneficiaries were retired and blind persons