Lusaka City Council prioritises local action for flooding

Lusaka City Council in partnership with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability – Africa recently held a workshop under the auspices of the Sustainable Urban Resilient Water for Africa: Developing Local Climate Solutions (SURe Water 4 Africa: Developing LOCs) project.

The workshop series provides a platform for the city to receive feedback on the research around Risk and Vulnerability as well as the Climate Analysis that was carried out in 2014. The city also had a chance to reflect on the progress made in delivery of the objectives set for the project. The city also managed to initiate a process of identifying people to sit on a multi-stakeholder platform that would assist in strategically providing locally appropriate guidance in formulating the Local Plan of Action. The Local Plan of Action will eventually contribute towards building resilience of the city to lower impacts of flooding. It was also envisaged that the multi-stakeholder forum would grow and support the practice even after the SURe water project has been concluded in 2017.

In delivering his opening remarks to the workshop, the Mayor of Lusaka City Council Cllr George Nyendwa made reference to the challenges of floods that the city experiences and how that hinders delivery of basic services, such as water and sanitation within the city. He mentioned that the challenge had become a perennial issue and continued to threaten the health and well-being of it’s the citizens.

“Having gone through these challenges year in and year out, it is now time for us to find a lasting solution on how best we can prevent this problem of floods through meaningfully engaging with the SURe Water project” highlighted Mayor George Nyendwa.

The workshop took place over three days. Day one and day two were set aside for ICLEI Africa to engage the political and technical personnel from the different municipal departments. Also present were key stakeholders from relevant national departments, utility and organisations providing funding to water and sanitation projects in Lusaka City Council. Day three was set aside for engagement with community members from Kanyama Compound, Ward 10. The project will focus in depth on the community as well as establish a local plan of action that will contribute towards building the resilience of the community of Kanyama to adverse impacts of flooding, particularly in the way they access water and sanitation services.

The SURe water 4 Africa: Developing LoCS project is currently in its 27th month of the 54 months of implementation and is being part financed by the European Commission.