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Lukanga Water Supply and Sanitation (LgWSC) has in collaboration with SNV intensified the provision of sanitation services through desludging of waste matter from pit latrines 

LgWSC Technical and operations manager Nicholas Mwale said the undertaking is meant to increase on the sanitation coverage from the current 55 percent to about 80 percent by 2030.

Mr Mwale said that the project had its memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2017 with the main preparations having taken shape in 2018 while the actual implementation of the project would be done in due course.

He indicated that instead of using the company employees for the works, LgWSC instead engaged illegal emptiers to undertake the whole thing as opposed to punishing them for the illegalities.

Mr Mwale said that about 10 private emptiers had been identified, vaccinated, provided with protective clothing and the chemicals to use while carrying out the assignment and that the initial desludging exercise was expected take off by the first week of August.

He said that the emptiers would walk home with 40 percent of the salary while the remaining 60 percent would remain with the company.

“SNV secured a vacuum tanker and a vehicle and the 10 private emptiers will be operating from areas where we cannot reach, specifically in peri-urban areas like in Makululu, Shamabanse, Katondo, part of Natuseko and part of Mukobeko. So when we identified them under the project they were brought forward and were formalized and they have signed an MoU with Lukanga Water Supply and Sanitation and at the end of the month the company will be paying them something, in terms of the finances they get 40 percent and Lukanga will get 60 percent,” Mr Mwale said.

He said the assessment had already been done in all the townships where the project would be taken.

LgWSC Managing Director Yoram Sinyangwe said that had done its homework in terms of resource mobilization, organisation of business in regard to sanitation with the focus to consider onsite sanitation which always been ignored by utility companies.

Mr Sinyangwe said that the move was result of the major the major changes that have taken shape within the organisation of the water sector where the Ministry of Water and Sanitation through the National Water and Sanitation Council (NWASCO) gave LgWSC the mandate to also deliver service towards onsite sanitation.

He said that unlike the past when the company would concentrate on focus on conventional sewerage services such as the services concentrating on townships with running water in homes, a shift had been made to also consider that belonged to the peri-urban areas.

“We get the waste from the onsite facilities such as latrines and deposit it safely in line with goal number six and SNV has helped us reorganize our company by providing us with knowledge, resource and skills to try and re-strategise where we have come up with Sanitation strategy to try and address those gaps,” Mr Sinyangwe said.

He said that that apart from working with SNV, the utility company was also working with the local authorities building linkages with an understanding that the water sector derives authority from the councils.

Mr Sinyangwe said with collaboration positive results were expected to be produced by the water utility company.

“They also provided some funding in procuring equipment which will be used to desludging the pit latrines, there is what is called E-vac, motor vehicle for the transportation of the waste and capacity building in the areas of training the communities and our employees and proving capacity building within our establishment by providing money to employ people to deal with that aspect,” he said.

LUKANGA Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LgWSC) has emerged third best performing Water Utility Company at the just ended awards.

LgWSC Managing Director Yoram Sinyangwe received the award on behalf of the company at the event held by the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWSCO) in Lusaka recently.

Mr Sinyangwe attributed the performance by LgWSC to teamwork and dedication to work by the staff.

Mr Sinyangwe explained that LgWSC being named the third best performing Water Company was an achievement that has never been attained since inception in 2007.

Mr Sinyangwe said the move had given the company homework in areas that needed to be improved to ensure more scores of excellence continued to be cupped.

He it was gratifying that the Lukanga Water has continued to perform well as seen in the awards received by the company this year.

Mr Sinyangwe said that apart from being ranked third, the water company was recognized in the gender mainstream and HIV/AIDS, a position which LGWSC scooped earlier in the launch of the 2019 sector report.

He said that the company was also awarded as the most improved water utility company in the country.

“Recently, the biggest achievement is that we were ranked third best performing utility company for the first time in the history of the organisation since its establishment in 2007, other than us getting to the third position we were also recognized as the organisation which improved the most from the previous awards,” Mr Sinyangwe said.

He said the recognition was a result of team work and proper understanding on the need to serve the public as compared to being in office for fulfillment purpose.

Mr Sinyangwe said that Lukanga Water had also improved in the areas of sanitation and water coverage.

He said for continued success, the company had mounted a number of steps that would help continued provision of quality water; increased hours of water supply, improved collection, improve on staff efficiency, operation and maintenance by post coverage.

“We worked together very well and focused on most important things of our business in regards to service delivery, of course there are quite a number of areas we need to improve but generally in the last year of review we performed well in most areas of critical importance,” he said.

Mr Sinyangwe indicated that unlike being academic, Lukanga Water Supply and Sanitation was very practical through application of strategies using acquired knowledge and skills.

He said that it was a dream of the company to have water quality improved the current 98 percent to 100 percent.

Mr Sinyangwe said it was also cardinal that there was a shift from supplying water for 18 hours daily to 24/7.

He said that for the sake of effectiveness, a created WhatsApp group had made it easy to locate areas of urgent need.

“The stakeholders WhatsApp group is one of the most important tools of us receiving feedback, we would like to know how we are doing because we are only 300 employees but our footprints cover the whole province, our customers are everywhere,” he said.

Lukanga Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LgWSC) has through a funding from NUFFIC, a Dutch organisation for International Development trained its staff with skills to remain relevant and efficient during the course of providing service delivery to clients.

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