Admins Note: Sirleaf-Johnson and the 40 billion hours. When we advocate for decentralized government, we are basically asking for social services to be closer to the people. Water supply, sanitation, health, education and other social services should reside in local Government systems. Why do we say this? Because, President Sirleaf Johnson at the just ended TICAD V says women in sub-Saharan Africa spend 40 billion hours annually fetching water. What could possibly be so astounding as a statistic that hits you with so much force. We do our research but this has taken us by surprise. Let us context this number. A Zambian worker gets about 1.3 dollars an hour, we are talking of one who gets about USD200 a month or 1,000 kwacha rounded off to the nearest whole number. It therefore goes without saying that, if women in sub-saharan africa spend 40 billion hours to fetch water, that translates to USD45.4 billion in lost income. What can USD45.4 billion do? That money can sink, 27 million boreholes at USD2,000 each, if each borehole can provide water to 600 people we are talking of 2 times the population on earth, with safe, fresh drinking water. Water is life colleagues. This is not a maxim that you just throw about, it is true water is life. Without water no one can possibly function. We have been talking about improving our access to safe drinking water for our population. It is strange that we are concentrating on road infrastructure, universities, stadiums and other infrastructure to the exclusion of water. According to the latest MDG Report that Hon. Alexander Chikwanda launched a few weeks ago, 36.8% of Zambia’s do not have access to clean drinking water. This problem is very serious in rural areas where, as of 2010, 48.6% of the population did not have access to clean drinking water. This compared with 58.1% in 2006. The reduction between 2006 and 2010 was as a result of a specific intervention by the Government of the late HE Mwanawasa through the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (NRRWSSP). If in 4 years, 10% of a population can be provided with water, we are confident that in 10 years almost all Zambians will have access to drinking water that is safe. The situation in the urban areas is worrying, in 2006, 11.8% of people did not have access to drinking water, that population has increased to 15.3%. However with the signing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project we hope that the urban population will be adequately served. Ladies and Gentlemen you cannot talk about water without sanitation. If the example in Chief Mapanza’s area is anything to go by, the intervention of providing guidance in sanitation facilities, goes to show how traditional leadership can spur development. Zambia cannot have a population of 2 million people that do not have access to proper sanitation facilities. In this day and age, we think that every one should have a toilet, everyone should not have a place to dispose of their litter. This is what we propose. (i) Can the Government prioritise the infrastructure development that deals with social services especially those related to health. (ii) It is time we looked at decentralisation seriously, the policy, implementation plan and laws are all there, what are we waiting for? (iii) The order of things should be to make councils have their capacity restored. Not long ago, councils used to deliver water, electricity, road licences etc etc, that capacity should be restored, council is closer to the people than the central Government this is why it is called LOCAL Government.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:14:46 +0000
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