Sewage network coverage in Lusaka worrying, WaterAid Zambia

WaterAid Zambia Country Director Pamela Chisanga has noted with concern that only 14 percent of the population in Lusaka is on sewerage network.

Chisanga revealed that the rest of the population estimated at 86% were still using on-site sanitation. 

She notes that more is needed to respond to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6 and 13 especially on women and girls in relation to sanitation.

Chisanga cited peri urban areas such as Kanyama, George Compound and Garden Compound as places using on-site sanitation despite lying on very high water tables.

The WaterAid Zambia Country Director warned that chances of ground water contamination were extremely high in the said areas.

Chisanga urged Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company and other commercial utilities across the country to upscale the Kanyama model of eco-friendly on-site sanitation facilities that can be safely emptied to other peri urban areas.

“This is a model that has proven that it can work and other water utilities will do well to emulate what Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company is doing in Kanyama because it offers sanitation options that limit chances of underground water contamination,” she said. 

Chisanga added that with support, communities had showed interest in having better sanitation options.

“Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company provided reasonably priced sanitation options but even with these options, most households could not afford to pay for the service directly which pushed WaterAid Zambia to come on board to provide a financing model that allowed most households to afford the sanitation options offered by the Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company.

“We paid for the families and they have been repaying for the sanitation facilities with ease,” she said. 

The WaterAid Zambia Country Director advanced that her organisation would advocate for the exploration of viable sanitation financing options for different communities across the country for Zambia to have sustainable sanitation facilities. 

“We have seen that with the approach we have been using as a sector, the Community Total Led Sanitation, there is always an uptake of sanitation facilities on communities. These facilities do not last because they use anything such as poll and mud to be able to put up sanitation facilities.

“But these are very temporal and we are always sliding back in terms of sanitation coverage because these collapse and households end up with no sanitation facilities or are forced to regularly redo them. This is a great cost to most of these communities,” she said.