Can city relocation end cholera outbreaks?

February 21, 2018

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka

 
CHOLERA, a highly contagious waterborne disease with the ability to cause death within 24 hours, has in the past few months ravaged the city of Lusaka. This notorious epidemic that knows no class broke out in October last year and has so far claimed about 80 lives while 3,635 people have been treated.

Some of the areas that were affected by cholera include Chipata, Kanyama, Chawama, Matero, Chilenje and Chelston.

However, on the bright side, the disease has inculcated good habits in people such as the cautious disposal of garbage, washing of hands after using the toilet and drinking treated or boiled water.

But, without adequate clean drinking water, better sanitation and hygiene practices, it is difficult to maintain high standards of cleanliness and win the fight against cholera.

It is believed that lack of access to clean drinking water and better sanitation are among the factors that ignited the outbreak of cholera in the capital city. However, Government has worked hard to curb the disease, but what remains is to find a lasting solution to recurrent cholera outbreaks.

Meanwhile, after a long dry spell in Lusaka, the heavens have finally decided to open up, and alas, causing floods in some townships of Lusaka.

And as the heavy rain pounds the rooftops of Kanyama township, Elledy Musumala closes the window of her tiny house and sighs.
“The rains are here and there is cholera too,” Mrs Musumala notes. She then explains how the outbreak of cholera in the unplanned settlement has negatively affected the lives of many people due to water shortages and the inadequacies of water infrastructure.

EIZ president George Sitali addresses members at the Indaba

Ms Musumala, who has lived her entire life in Kanyama, is now worried because the cholera epidemic has become a perennial problem.

Water supply and sanitation has been a huge challenge in most unplanned townships of Lusaka, prompting residents to draw water from unprotected shallow wells which are unsafe.

The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number six calls on countries to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. Improving these services to bring about economic gains is key in building resilience due to increased climate variability.

Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ) president George Sitali believes that the solutions to combating cholera include brainstorming and sharing of ideas that have the potential to produce feasible models.

Recently, EIZ held an indaba dubbed ‘Sustainable development in the water and sanitation sector” to put in place permanent measures to avoid future disease outbreaks.

Mr Sitali said the indaba theme had clear links to the Seventh National Development Plan under the growth outcome number three which emphasises improved access to water supply and sanitation.

EIZ’s mandate is to advise Government on matters relating to the engineering profession, to investigate and monitor national emergencies of public concern by, or likely to be caused by, an engineering product or service and recommend appropriate preventive and rehabilitative measures.

“Cholera response requires structural responses,” one of the engineers, Ennie Muchelemba, noted in her presentation entitled: “Rural water supply-faecal contamination of groundwater: Does disinfection using chlorine make the water safe?’’

Ms Muchelemba stated that safe drinking water should be free from pathogenic organisms and low in concentration of compounds that are acutely toxic.

This year, Government has allocated K564.5 million for water and sanitation in the national budget.
According to the National Water and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), access to water supply in urban areas stands at 86 percent, while in rural areas it is at 48 percent. This means that over six million people are without sanitation facilities.

Daniel Nkhuwa, a geology lecturer in the School of Mines at the University of Zambia, suggested that the capital city should shift from Lusaka to another place where proper city planning will be possible.

Professor Nkhuwa said over the years, Lusaka’s perspective has been lost, hence the need for an urgent re-think on how future developments of the city should be implemented.

He said there is need for a complete uproot of the capital city to some new location whose geology could allow for on-site sanitation system.

“The choices made many years ago have impacted on current waterborne diseases. The onsite sanitation should not have been permitted because the geology on the ground (of Lusaka) does not allow it,” he said.

Professor Nkhuwa’s presentation was entitled: ‘Is sustainable urban water development and prevention of waterborne diseases attainable in Lusaka under its current sanitation practices?’

While a lot still needs to be done to correct the current situation, especially in Lusaka, efforts on the ground are slowly yielding fruit. The US$355 million Millennium Challenge Account (MCC) project which aims at improving water, sanitation and drainage infrastructure has been almost completed.

The project is meant to help reduce the incidences of water-related diseases, give households more time for income generation, make businesses more productive and prevent residential floods.

It is for this reason that Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection principal engineer for rural water supply and sanitation, Abel Manangi, called on engineers to influence change in the prevention of waterborne diseases through timely advice.

“We hope the team of engineers working with Government will consider re-planning or re-development of cities and slums where disease outbreaks are frequent,” Mr Manangi noted.

Adding more insight on the topic, WaterAID technical manager Adamson Sakala advised engineers to be emphatic and proactive for their decisions to be taken seriously and implemented.

“We need to target the causes of cholera. This implies building water systems in whole cities and villages in endemic areas,” Mr Sakala said.

The resolutions of the indaba will be presented to Government for possible action. Former EIZ president Bernard Chiwala will lead the team of experts in drafting the position paper.

Adolescent girls making impact

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka

Charity

 

IN A country where formal employment for young people is not readily available, Charity Phiri, 27, of Ng’ombe in Lusaka, is making ends meet at the Foundation for the Realisation of Economic Empowerment (FREE).

The foundation serves as an example of what economic empowerment of young people is all about.
Located in the heart of Ng’ombe township, FREE is a project generating income for young people through copper jewellery-making.
It started in 2010 by Dawn Bridget Close, initially targeting older women who were taught to make copper jewellery, but now has a bias towards young people.

This is because young people are said to be enthusiastic, open- minded to new innovations and are usually more eager to learn than the older women.

The foundation has a team of 10 dedicated adolescent girls who have been trained and are able to make different copper jewellery, including earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

Charity, the eighth born in a family of 10, completed her Grade 12 from Olympia School in Lusaka in 2007.

When she could not be supported to pursue her dream career in law, she had no option but to join FREE in 2013.

This was in a bid to raise money that could help her to carry on her dream career to become a lawyer.
“I learnt about the foundation from my aunt who used to be a member. I am here with the sole purpose of raising money that will allow me to go to study law,” Charity says.

She believes by becoming a lawyer, she will get the opportunity to defend the vulnerable people who lack legal representation in courts of law.

Charity also desires to uplift the status of her family which is currently known as a poor one with no hope of becoming better.

She is able to make any sort of jewellery using copper after undergoing training in jewellery production.

The products that she and the other girls make are sold locally at the Saturday market at Arcades Shopping Mall and other international markets such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
However, despite her determination to raise money for college, Charity has not been able to save as expected. This is because her income is unpredictable.

“I receive my wage depending on the products that I make and are sold out, this makes saving quite difficult. I always look forward to better sales of jewellery so that I could save enough money for college,” she says.

The highest amount of money Charity has bagged home was K1,800 in 2016. Her target is to make K3,000 per month.

Despite the meagre income she earns from FREE, Charity has developed love for jewellery -making and hopes to own her jewellery shop in future. This could be probably after she achieves her dream of becoming a lawyer.

According to her, if she had an opportunity, she could have borrowed money from the bank so that she could start the business and eventually raise funds for her university education. She has not been able to do so because banks demand that she provides collateral security.

She attests that it is difficult for small entrepreneurs without any form of collateral to get a loan from bank, but she is optimistic that the future is bright for her as she will not give up dreaming.

She works at the foundation five days a week from 09:00 hours to 17:00 hours and rests on Saturdays and Sundays.

FREE-funded by the Finnish embassy, encourages the young people to be assertive and plan to establish their own enterprises in future.

The foundation receives US$700 from the Finnish embassy monthly.

The founder, Ms Close, says the foundation aims to reverse the marginalisation of adolescents by providing them with the opportunity to better their lives.

This is in a bid to break the cycle of dependency through empowering young women to earn income.
The funding from the Finnish embassy is used to buy copper pieces which the girls use to make different jewellery sold locally and in other countries like the DRC.

The funding also enables Ms Close to train more young women how to run small businesses and become self-reliant.

“I chose the jewellery business because the global market for the business is growing, offering opportunities for the ladies to exploit the market,” Ms Close says.

Her goal is to add value to copper as too often African countries like Zambia are stripped of their natural resources when they are exported in raw form.

“Our jewellery is made from recycled copper, hot water heaters and from electrical wire,” she said.
FREE is moving towards processing its own semi-precious gemstones which will add greater value and appeal to the jewellery.

The young women at the foundation are happy with the kind of training and empowerment they have received. They hope to use the skill and knowledge to run their own enterprises in future.

Jemima Chilekwa, 25, is a University of Zambia (UNZA) graduate who completed in 2017. She has joined the foundation to gain entrepreneurial skills with the hope of running her own business.

“I studied Library Science and Development Studies, and when I could not find a job, the foundation took me in and I like what I am doing here,” Jemima said.

She believes adolescent girls need to rise up to the challenge to become agents of change by thinking ‘outside the box and embracing new things’.

Jemima has also been trained in silver smelting and looks forward to utilising the skill in future.
“My goal is to become finally independent,” Jemima says.

Collin Kaluba, 21, works closely with Jemima in silver smelting and the girls are excited and are determined to face and exploit future opportunities.

Finnish Ambassador to Zambia Timo Olkkonen said the embassy will continue to support initiatives that aim to uplift the well-being of the vulnerable.