Lusaka City unfriendly to the persons with disability – Ngwa’le

Lusaka City unfriendly to the persons with disability – Ngwa’le

Lusaka, June 5, 2013 ,  ZANIS— Disability HIV/AIDS Human Rights Programme Director Elijah Ngwale says the capital City, Lusaka has become un-friendly to the persons with disabilities.

Mr. Ngwale says physical environment does not favour persons with disabilities in terms of infrastructure because persons with disabilities do not have access to roads, schools, houses, health facilities among others not only in Lusaka but also other towns in the country.

The Disability Activist has for this reason challenged the Zambia Environment Management Agency (ZEMA)  to monitor the guidelines that impede the rights of his members.

ZANIS reports that Mr. Ngwale said this in an interview as the country joins the rest of the world in commemorating the World Environment Day, today.

He said since the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the Convention on the rights of persons living with disabilities in 2006 in which rights of disabled people are enshrined, only three countries have domesticated the Convention.

He regretted that most African countries neither have disability legislation in place nor have made any effort to mainstream issues of persons living with disabilities in their programmes.

Mr. Ngwale has however commended the Zambian Government for being proactive in dealing with issues pertaining to persons with disabilities in which the Zambian Government enacted the Persons with Disabilities Act number six of 2012.

The theme for 2013 World Environment Day celebrations is dubbed, “Think. Eat and Save.

Think.Eat.Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages people to reduce their food-print. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted.

FAO further reports that 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.  

This year’s campaign sensitizations seeks to take action from homes and then experience the power of collective decisions from people in positions of influence including political will from respective governments.

This is  to reduce food waste, save money, minimize the environmental impact of food production and force food production processes to become more efficient.