By JOHN SAKALA
Solwezi Municipal Council has hired Baba Drilling and Exploration Company to sink five boreholes in peri urban wards.
Speaking with The Independent Observer, Solwezi Town Clerk Bornwell Luanga said the council had signed a contract with Baba Drilling to drill five fully equipped boreholes in five Wards of Solwezi to ease the problem of access to water by communities.
Mr Luanga said once sunk, the boreholes would give access to clean water to more than 20, 000 people.
He said the contractor has been given seven days from today Monday, December 9, 2019 in which to start the sinking of the five boreholes.
Mr Luanga said initially the Council had preferred low cost boreholes but after a fact finding mission, the discovery was that most of those boreholes were drying up during dry season.
He said after the council had given the contractor the specifications, the total cost of the five boreholes went to K360, 108, meaning that one borehole would cost K72, 021.06.
“Among our specs were that each boreholes should be sunk to the depth of 75 metres, when ordinary boreholes are less than 50 metres deep. We also need the contractor to case the entire depth of boreholes to prevent it from collapsing.
“The boreholes will have proper drainage system and hand pumps so that when they are handed over to the Council they must be ready for use. The furthest point where some of these boreholes will be sunk is about 50 kilometres from the council. This is obviously one of the reasons factored in the costing,” he said.
Mr Luanga named the five wards to benefit as Kamalamba, Kimasala, Sandangome, Tumvanganai and Kapinjimpanga Wards
He said the five are the mostly rural or peri urban areas where people depend on shallow wells whiles others cover longer distances to fetch water.
