Urban Water Supply and Sanitation
URBAN WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION
The Government of Zambia passed the Water Supply and Sanitation Act,1997 thereby delegating and mandating the local authorities to provide water and sanitation services in the respective areas. Consequently all seventy-two (72) local authorities have gone ahead to establish commercial water utilities either as joint ventures or single entities to provide water and sanitation services.
The commercial utilities have endeavored to recruit qualified personnel, however, due to the limited capacity to pay competitive salaries, many of the qualified skilled personnel tend to be attracted to other private firms. This challenge is most pronounced in North-Western, Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces. Increasingly more water utilities are introducing performance rewarding systems to motivate enhanced performance among staff.
Infrastructure funding to the sector has been a major concern. There is need for a very deliberate investment policy by government as well as an increase in government funding for the water sector to address the deficits in infrastructure development in relation to the growing population.
PERI-URBAN WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION (PUWSS)
The Devolution Trust Fund (DTF) was established by NWASCO under the WSS Act through the Statutory Instrument No. 65 in 2001. The DTF is a basket financing instrument with the aim to assist the commercial water supply and sewerage utilities (CUs) to extend their services to the urban poor.
The DTF became operational in September 2003 and embarked on a pilot phase. It receives funding from GRZ as well as from external sources. The Fund’s activities include the sourcing of funds and the allocation of these funds to projects that will lead to universal access to satisfactory water and sanitation facilities by all of the urban poor. It promotes primarily technology, which offers the best ratio of quality service to costs, is commercially viable and is able to service a high number of poor people. The DTF is non-profit making. All the resources are to be used for improving water supply and sanitation services to the urban poor. During the pilot phase more than 120,000 people were able to benefit from the DTF funded interventions
The DTF has so far mobilized K92.2billion for financing both water and sanitation projects including the pilots. Out of the amount mobilized, K75.4 billion had been received by 2009 of which K67,095 billion has been spent on financing 67 Water Projects benefiting 609,210 people. An additional 160,00 people will benefit once all the projects are completed.
