Kafubu Water’s US450million project to cut non-revenue water losses .....

Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company has invested over USD450million in a project to improve water supply and will significantly reduce non-revenue water losses to levels of 20% (from the current 50%). This was established in an interview with the company’s Director of Engineering – Mr. Bernard Phiri at the recently held International Trade fair in Ndola.

Mr. Bernard Phiri advised Zambia’s premium business newspaper that KWSCL’s construction of the 120million cubic meter dam which will improve the supply of water in Kafulafuta area of Masaiti district of the Copperbelt. The objective for the Kafulafuta water supply project been constructed by China Complete Engineering Cooperation - CCEC at a cost of US450million is to reduce non-revenue water from the current 50% to less than 20% upon completion, he said. Non-revenue water is water pumped but not billed due to leakage and transmission losses.

Construction of the dam has caused displacements with 30 affected families having been relocated and ZMW15million has been put aside for resettlement compensation. Equipment like pipes for the project have started coming in from China, and will be installed from Masaiti to Ndola covering a distance of about 45kms.

” We are also going to put up an overhead reservoir tank at Kafulafuta which will be pumping from the dam to enable good flowing of water,” Phiri said.

Phiri also bemoaned the levels of vandalism for valves and piped leading to uncontrolled leakages. As such, he warned members of the community to desist from indulging in illegal connections of sewer system as it is one of the major contributing factors to water and environmental pollution. He said that the utility has so far spent a total of ZMW100,000 on repairing leaking pipes in Luanshya, Masaiti and Ndola.

Non-revenue water and non-competitive water tariffs have been one of the biggest challenges facing the water and sewerage utilities in Zambia. This has forced them to improve their profitability and revenue generation capacity. Social and political consideration is another hurdle, as cutting supply to high density residential areas becomes a health and political matter.

The utility regulator, National Water Supply and Sanitation Council – NWASCO reported in April 2018 that eight (8) commercial utilities (CUs) met the acceptable benchmark of 80% for water coverage except for Lukanga, Western and Luapula Water and Sewerage Company’s. The regulator has however struggled to make the sector efficient mostly due to the monopoly nature of the industry.