NEWS in brief
Around Africa
Zambia’s GDP growth to slow to 3.4 percent this year
from government’s initial target of more than 7 percent,
according to Barclays Plc. That would be the most sluggish
pace since 1998, when the economy contracted.
The government is trying to shield mines from the
electricity shortage as copper accounts for 70 percent
of exports, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda said
last month. While operators have been asked to cut their
power use by 30 percent, most mines are able to continue
normal production through more efficient use and buying
imported power, according to Copperbelt Energy Corp.,
their biggest supplier.
Zambia aggravated the situation at Kariba by continuously
running a 360-megawatt hydropower expansion, designed
only to operate for 3 1/2 hours a day during peak demand,
said Scott, who became acting President when Michael
Sata died in October. Scott officially opened the plant,
which increased generating capacity on the Zambian side
of the dam by 50 percent, in August last year.
Zimbabwe
Ridding Beitbridge of Cholera: Zimbabwe’s Hardest
Hit District Fights Back
Beitbridge – In 2008 and 2009, Zimbabwe’s poor
treated water, and erratic power supply causing businesses
to suffer.
“Our biggest problem in Beitbridge at the time was burst
sewer lines, which made the town dirty all the time,” said F.
Gumbo, owner of Beitbridge Pay Toilets. “We didn’t have
water, we were losing a lot of money.”
These conditions combined to create an epidemic that
took two years to recover.
In response to the epidemic, the Government of
Zimbabwe and the World Bank (WB) created the Beitbridge
Emergency Water Supply and Sanitation Project with the
goal to address the town’s serious water and sanitation
issues.
This project’s first order of business was to make physical
investments in the water supply system, wastewater
treatment, and solid waste management, while also
strengthening the capacity of the Beitbridge Town Council.
These activities were supported through a US$2.65 million
multi-donor trust fund (MDTF), financed by the State and
Peace Building Fund and administered by the WB.
Simon Muleya, Beitbridge district administrator, says the
upgrades to the town’s water treatment facility have played
a big part in containing the contamination.
“They upgraded the water drain in the plant and also retrenched our sewer pipes one kilometer to the sewage
treatment plant and also our ponds were redone because
we had a problem with our ponds where we were polluting
the international river,” Muleya said.
The three components of the project focused on:
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Cholera child in wheelbarrow
sanitation and water treatment facilities became a public
health catastrophe that claimed the lives of 4,300 people
and infected more than 100,000 people nationwide.
In the border town of Beitbridge alone, nearly 25,000
people became infected with the waterborne disease. Poor
sanitation infrastructure was only the tipping point of the
causes of the cholera epidemic.
“We lost a lot of people,” said Rumbidzai Ribombo, the
chairperson of the Beitbridge Residents Association. “A
lot of people died because they did not have access to
clean water.”
The spread of the disease was further exacerbated by
inadequate treatment of drinking water, shortage of stored
Treatment and supply rehabilitation
Sewerage treatment rehabilitation and the improvement
of solid waste management
Strengthening the institutional capacity of both the
Beitbridge Town Council and the Zimbabwe National
Water Authority
Muleya said these improvements, especially the
improvement of solid waste collection from homes
and businesses, has helped Beitbridge become markedly
cleaner.
“We now have refuse collection and one compacted truck
which really went a long way giving us capacity to collect
solid waste regularly,” he said.
The partnership between the WB and the MTDF lead to
a feasibility study for the council, so that “at least we have
a proper landfill where we can deposit our solid waste,”
Muleya said.
The improvements have also led to healthier residents.
There have been no new cholera incidents, and the town
has demonstrated greater willingness to pay for the
improvement in service.
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2015
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