Access to clean water quite literally means life. Since today is World Water Day, we’re taking a look at the state of access to water in Zambia. In keeping with the 2011 theme for World Water Day, ‘water for cites, responding to the urban challenge’, drilling boreholes for communities is one of the most effective ways of uplifting the lives of people in urban and rural areas. In Zambian cities many communities have hundreds, if not thousands of people who still face the daily problem of access to clean water.
The Zambian Government would do well to consider this issue and help these communities achieve access to clean water. This is also a hot topic because of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. Goal 7 is to, ‘ensure environmental sustainability’, and 7C is, ‘to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.’
Unfortunately, the current reality is that Zambia’s infrastructure cannot effectively supply municipal water across this large country. Much of the work is being achieved through fund raising events like Row Zambezi which aims to row one million meters for one million litres and raise £50,000 for the charity Village Water. This amazing team of rowers really does need your support!
In Zambia, even in towns water supply can be erratic and as a result many households that can have their own borehole, pump and tank. In towns boreholes are put in place as a back up. In rural areas they may be the only source of any kind of water supply except for rivers and hand dug wells which may run out of water in the dry season.
One notable change seen in the last decade is that more and more drilling and water exploration companies have emerged in Zambia and they are making a huge impact in community acquisition of water. With companies like Africa Drilling and Exploration Ltd, today it can take just six hours to drill a borehole, compared to taking up to six months for exploration and drilling back in the day when water supply services were exceptionally limited. The variety of water exploration and drilling companies that have developed over the last decade has had an incredibly positive effect on the people in countries like Zambia.
There is more information on Zambian water exploration and drilling teams on the Best of Zambia.
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