Kafubu water starts overhauling system next month

-Overhauling of the Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company water reticulation system under the US $ 89 million DANIDA Business Finance grant is scheduled to begin next month.

Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company Brunch Manager, Paul Bilima, said phase one of the two phased water project, which included designing, pre qualification and the acquiring of a contractor was almost completed.

"We are almost completing phase one, we have done the system and designing among other things and we are only remaining with acquiring a main contractor who should be Danish as per grant condition and then we can move into phase two which will kick-start actual works on site," Mr Bilima said.

He said the second phase, which begins next month, will cover the actual renovation works in the space of 24 months.

The manager stated that the 36 months water reticulation refurbishment project includes the servicing of Luanshya, Ndola and Masaiti districts water plants and will run simultaneously.

Mr Bilima told ZANIS in Luanshya today that the venture will see the replacement of all pumps linking the water network, repair works on filters and the replacement of major lines but that no sewer lines would be serviced.

He added that the scheme will also include the extension of service to non- serviced areas in all the three districts as well as the metering of non-metered areas.

Mr Bilima stated that the complete servicing of the water network would improve the currently very poor service levels in the district.

Meanwhile, Mr Bilima said the water reticulation company will introduce the prepaid water metering system once service levels in Luanshya district were improved.

He said the success of the prepaid water system is largely dependent on consistent water supply which the company was currently not able to provide.

He disclosed that the prepaid meter system is an internally funded plan and will begin with a pilot project of installing prepared meters in all government institutions before the service was rolled out to all customers.

"Every pilot is small. We will first start with government institutions for easy access in terms of monitoring and maintenance before we can roll out to the entire district and we also need to ensure that places where we install the prepaid meters have water throughout  for the meters to work effectively" he said.

Mr Bilima said the introduction of prepaid meters would also improve service levels as consumers would become more conscious of their water usage which will result in low water consumption and enhanced management.

He added that the prepaid system would also reduce the rate of customers defaulting payment of water bills.

Luanshya district has for a long time been facing erratic water supply due to the wearing of water pipes and lack of maintenance.