NEW WATER POLICIES RAPPED
… ZNFU says civil service cartel frustrating agriculture
THE Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has charged that there is a cartel of civil servants that are deliberately frustrating President Lungu’s vision for agriculture by formulating policies that are detrimental to the sector’s growth.
In an interview in Lusaka, =1)8 president -ervis =imba cited the recently introduced Statutory Instruments (SIs) on regulation and management of water resources, particularly boreholes, as some of the policies hurting agriculture
“We have discovered that some civil servants are just out there to destroy agriculture. They make out an SI, they sweet-talk the minister, he agrees and goes to Cabinet and Cabinet agrees without looking at everything.
“We are appealing to the minister and the Head of State to defer those three SIs so that we can do a proper job to understand and differentiate between what should be done in rural areas and urban areas,” Mr. Zimba said.
He said =1)8 had previously met then Minister of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Lloyd Kaziya and discussed with him to iron out controversy surrounding the SIs but nothing tangible came out of the meeting.
“Next, the new minister comes in and he signs without coming back to consult. This has caused a lot of damage to our agriculture sector in terms of farmers wanting to get boreholes. In the past most small scale farmers were dealing with wells and rivers and now it is completely opposite.
“Where a farmer could easily access a borehole at somewhere around . , to . , to have proper water for irrigation, it has now shot up to between . , and . , . Are you sure the farming community, especially our small scale farmers will afford that? It is out completely,” he said.
0r. =imba added that =1)8 had reached a stalemate with the ministry hence the need for President Lungu to intervene, especially that the Head of State had been advocating shifting economic dependence from mining to agriculture.
“Arrogance by the civil service in the water sector will not help because at the end of the day they will be the ones to blame if we are not going to be the breadbasket because no one is investing in water anymore.
“We want the President to step in especially that he has been advocating shifting economic dependence from mining to agriculture. One thing that surprises us as a union is that the President is busy talking about developing agriculture as a priority but the civil service is doing something opposite. This is why we are static and they are frustrating his vision. With such kind of civil servants who are out there to damage agriculture, he will not achieve anything in the sector,” he said.