The National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO) has suspended the operating licenses for the Luapula and Western Water Supply and Sanitation Companies pursuant to section 21(4) of the water supply and sanitation act, no. 28 of 1997 (as amended by act no. 10 of 2005).
And the Minister of Water Development and Sanitation Mike Mposha, has since appointed the statutory managers for the respective commercial utilities.
NWASCO Director Kelvin Chitumbo says the regulator has completed the annual in-depth inspections for 9 out of the 11 commercial utilities for this year and has since suspended the operating licenses for Luapula and Western Water Supply and Sanitation Companies following non-compliance to licence conditions such as failure to provide water supply and sanitation services according to the service level guarantees and failure to comply with directives.
Mr. Chitumbo says the council has heightened the surveillance on adherence to licence conditions in line with its mandate to regulate the provision of water supply and sanitation services that ensure safe, adequate, efficient and sustainable service delivery for all.
Mr. Chitumbo says nwasco undertook steps to redeem the situation ranging from placing the utilities under Special Regulatory Supervision, Regulation By Incentive (RBI), capacity-building, directives based on findings from scheduled inspections, issuance of a notice of intention to suspend the operating licences and finally the suspension of the operating licences.
Mr. Chitumbo has urged all the 11 utilities in the water sector to ensure that they thrive towards attaining sustainable development goal number 6, vision 2030 for Zambia and the 8th National Development Plan(8NDP) which focus on increasing access to clean and safe drinking water and adequate sanitation for all.
