By JOHN SAKALA
Chingola Municipal Council in collaboration with Zambia Police yesterday August 12, 2020 swung into action and destroyed vegetables grown using sewer water.
The slashed gardens are those in Mulugushi area of Kapisha Township where the residents were growing vegetables using raw sewerage water.
Chingola Council Assistant Public Relation Manager Donna Mbalwe said the growers were block sewer pipes for Mulonga Water Supply and Sanitation Company (MWSS) and diverted the sewer effluent into their gardens covering about six (6) hectares.
Ms Mbalwe said in order to safeguard the health of the residents of Chingola from diseases arising from the contaminated vegetables, the council had no option but to destroy them so that they the growers don’t continue gardening using the sewer effluent.
She said the residents had been warned in the past few weeks by the Local Authority to stop the activities but defied the warnings thereby prompting the Council to conduct the operation.
“The council would like to re-emphasize that growing and watering vegetables using raw sewerage is a crime and it contravenes the provisions of the Public Health Act Chapter 295 ,the Food and Drugs Act Cap 303 of the Laws of Zambia and also the Local Government ( street Vending nuisance Amendment ) Regulation, statutory Instrument No.10 of 2018 which states that ; offering or exposing for sale of vegetables intended for consumption which is diseased, unsound, unwholesome or unfit for human consumption is an offence and attracts penalties exceeding K1000 every time the nuisance occurs.
“Therefore these Vegetables are not fit for human consumption and if these people continue to grow them using raw sewerage/fecal matter the council will not hesitate to prosecute the perpetrators as there is already a court order which gives power the council to do so,” she said.
