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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 fifty-nine (59) local authorities have gone ahead to establish commercial water utilities either as joint ventures or single entities to provide water and sanitation services. The remaining thirteen (13) local authorities are still running the water and sanitation services directly through the works departments. The commercialization process has lagged behind in these areas due to lack of funds to support the process.


Infrastructure
In Central Province the African Development Bank (AfDB) has been supporting the seven local authorities in the institutional reforms and infrastructure rehabilitation. A water company has been incorporated as a joint venture of all the seven local authorities in the province under the name of Lukanga Water and Sewerage Company limited.

The Eastern Province, which currently has only Chipata operating as a commercial utility, is receiving support from the German Government to commercialise the service delivery in the rest of the towns in the province.

In Lusaka the three towns of Kafue, Chongwe and Luangwa which are in Lusaka Province were merged into Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company. There was no external support to this process. Lusaka WSC is receiving World Bank support to improve financial viability of the company.

Southern and North-Western WSC have recently benefited from German support in terms of infrastructural and technical advice.

Financial viability in the sector is continuing to improve with six (6) of the nine (9) licensed commercial utilities operating in Zambia reaching operational cost coverage by the end of 2006.

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 Zambian Government through the DTF managed to mobilise funds amounting to about 44 billion ZMK to assist Commercial Utilities (CUs) extend and improve water supply and sanitation to low income urban areas. The Government of Germany through the German Development Bank (KfW) and Danish Government through DANIDA have now released the first installment of the committed funds amounting to 5 billion ZMK. 137,000 more people are expected to benefit from the DTF support.