Easing the water burden of the urban poor

For Zambia's urban poor, accessing clean drinking water is a wearisome daily grind that takes up time and saps energy. For thousands of residents in Kaloko, a shanty township on the southern outskirts of Ndola, in the central Copperbelt region, fetching water had meant waking up by 5.00 am, a six-kilometre roundtrip to the neighbouring township of Mushili, and a struggle to keep one's place in the queue at a rowdy communal tap. Lillian Saidi is an extreme example of the price that water can cost. Two years ago, on her way back from Mushili, the widow met her neighbours heading to the police to report the death of her children in a fire accident. Saidi had left her four-year-old son and two-month-old daughter sleeping. She had also left a kerosene lamp lit so that the boy could attend to his sibling in case she woke up and needed attention. "We had taps but water supply was erratic. We used to draw water at night or as early as four in the morning," Gwen Chola, another Kaloko resident recalled. A new project, launched by the local municipality's Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC), aims to ease the hardships of the 13,000-strong Kaloko community by making access to water easier through the construction of hygienic water "kiosks". KWSC is a water utility formed following the merger of the local water and sewerage departments to improve service delivery. With support from the UK-based International Water Association (IWA), a global grouping of water professionals, it has embarked on a water reticulation project at a cost of K120 million (US $25,223) for the construction of water kiosks where residents will buy water at a nominal fee of K2 (less than US 10 cents). The kiosks, which include a tap connected to the municipality's water pipeline, are manned by a member of the community who fills the containers provided by the residents with water. Six kiosks, commissioned early last year, have been constructed under phase one of the project. "What we are witnessing today here in Kaloko is the first of its kind in the short history of the company since its inception two years ago. From the time we took over the running of the water and sewerage system in Ndola, Masaiti and Luanshya [towns in the Copperbelt], our aim has been to provide sufficient and high quality water and sewerage services on a sustainable commercial basis," KWSC managing director Richard Soko said. Soko explained that instead of replacing the old system where people had to fight for water, the company decided to provide a system where people could draw water in a more hygienic and orderly environment. Kiosks have been preferred to the usual open communal taps to curb vandalism. "Our major problem with open communal taps has been vandalism which has left water gushing out from the pipes 24-hours a day. The company has lost millions of Kwacha because of the supply system being vandalised," Soko said. The project, if proved successful, will be replicated in other Ndola suburbs such as Kawama, Chipulukusu, and Kantolomba. With the help of a grant of Euro 68,000 from the Danish International Development Agency, KWSC will soon be constructing 19 water kiosks in Nkwazi, another shanty township in Ndola. The project, under the National Water and Sanitation Council's Devolution Trust Fund, will help to provide water to the 45,000-strong Nkwazi population by the end of October.