The people of George will certainly have a better supply of drinking water. The utility Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LWSC) has just completed the construction of an industrial borehole in this area of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. The new facility was commissioned on March 19th, 2021, in the wake of World Water Day, which was celebrated on March 22nd, under the theme: “Valuing Water”.
The new drinking water supply facility has a capacity of 20 litres per second. The water pumped from the water table will be supplied to the population via 3.4 km of pipes.
A PPP project
A total of 40,000 households and businesses will benefit from the drinking water project, mainly in George, Chunga, Matero and the surrounding areas. The project has been funded to the tune of US$150,000 by Zambian Breweries (ZB). The subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), which specialises in bottling soft drinks, made the funds available through a PPP (Public Private Partnership) with the LWSC.
The George drinking water project is part of Zambian Breweries’ strategy to combat cholera and the Covid-19 pandemic in the East African country. “Our goal is to see communities in low-income Zambian areas like George have better access to safe, quality water by 2025. We have already completed several community water projects in Zambia, including Itawa, Bauleni, etc. We have already completed several community water projects in Zambia, including Itawa, Bauleni, etc.,” says Ezekiel Sekele, Zambian Breweries’ Corporate Affairs Manager.
In Lusaka province, the level of the Chongwe Dam has dropped drastically, causing a shortage of water for the region’s water treatment plant. The phenomenon is caused by the drought that has hit Zambia for the past five years.
Ines Magoum