Last week, Local Government Minister Charles Banda toured the flood-prone central business district in the capital city and ordered the Lusaka City Council to “up its game” in dealing with the floods and avert a possible cholera outbreak similar to that which ravage the city in 2018. This isn’t the first time this year – and the years past – that a high-ranking government official has toured Lusaka and expressed similar sentiments about finding a lasting solution to this problem that has plagued the nation’s capital year after year but none has materialized, why?
So far, the Miles Sampa-led Lusaka City Council has been using the $42 million fire trucks to pump water out of the flood prone areas, but is this really the long-term solution that we’ve all been crying out for?
Earlier this month, Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo in a Facebook post charged that the flooding in some parts of Lusaka that follows every downpour is a self-induced problem.
“I have just been out this evening inspecting the flooded areas of Lusaka following the heavy rains experienced in the late afternoons,” Lusambo wrote on February 11. “I visited Salama Park and selected areas around Avondale to appreciate the extent of the crisis. It is unfortunate that some families will spend their nights in flooded homes.
“After a careful assessment with my team led by provincial deputy permanent secretary Frazier Musonda, we have concluded that the majority of these flood cases are induced by pure carelessness on our part as residents.
“The indiscriminate construction of illegal structures on drainages and road reserves including blocking of drainage lines is causing the catastrophe we are seeing today. Until we change our mindset as residents, we will continue to experience such calamities. When we embark on demolition exercises, we are called names but our mission remains to restore sanity to our city.”
The minister is absolutely right! The problem of flooding in the capital city is largely a consequence of illegalities that have been allowed to go on unabated over the years. However, Lusambo neglected to mention that the greater portion of the blame should be shared by the central government and the local authority for consistently failing to enforce their own laws.
These images where taken at Comesa Market, one of the busiest trading areas in Lusaka, after heavy rains on Friday afternoon. This area is one of the most food-prone in the city primarily due to what Minister Lusambo describes as “the indiscriminate construction of illegal structures on drainages and road reserves including blocking of drainage lines.” The local authority has dubiously allowed a gang of criminal elements to build permanent structures where there are supposed to roads and drainages, meaning every time it rains the excess water that is supposed to be drained away ends up seeping into the shops. Consequently, both legal and illegal traders have to contend with the resultant loss of business and the threat of another cholera epidemic.
“These floods are killing my business,” Florence, who runs a restaurant business in one of the makeshift stalls in the area complained to this reporter. “The council (LCC) must do something about the floods. Every time it rains a bit this place gets flooded and it keeps away the customers. We have really suffered!”
Another trader, Mulenga, said: “I wonder where the council have been all this time. For months, some people from the market committee have been collecting money from us traders claiming to be collaborating with the council to end this (flooding) problem but as you can see, nothing has happened. Where has all that money gone to?”
A legal business owner in the area told this reporter that he stands ready to join hands with the local authority in ensuring that problem of flooding is solved once and for all but that the council must do its part by curbing illegalities in the area.
“We stand ready to help the Lusaka City Council. We have indicated it to them on several occasions. But we all know where this problem is coming from…the council knows. This is a problem whose genesis the council is very much aware of but somehow, they remain reluctant to root it out. It will only get worse the more they (the council) drag their feet…those fire tenders they are using are not the solution, the solution lies in demolishing the illegal structures and relocating the occupants so that proper drainages can be built. We are ready, as legal business owners, to assist with resources if need be but the council must do its part.”
It’s failure to enforce planning laws and building permits. That’s a basic function of sny locsl authority. But seems Zambian Eye doesn’t seem to know that.