NWASCO AWARDS 5FM RADIO JOURNALIST CHRISTOPHER CHISI AND KELVIN MUDENDA OF TOZ

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The National Water Supply and Sanitation Council-NWASCO has launched the 2022 Water Supply and Sanitation Sector report and ranked the Eastern Water Supply and Sanitation Company as the Best Performing Utility moving from second place in 2021.

The report has also revealed that Southern Water Supply and Sanitation Company ranked 2nd place while Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company took 3rd position. 

This came to light during the launch of the NWASCO 2022 Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Report officiated by Minister of Water Development and Sanitation, Mike Mposha, at Taj Pamodzi hotel in Lusaka, yesterday. 




Further, NWASCO awarded 5FM Radio Journalist Christopher Chisi and Kelvin Mudenda of Times of Zambia for their exceptional media coverage of the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in the radio and most consistent categories, respectively. 

The Report showcases the comparative performance of the water supply and sanitation service providers against set sector benchmarks.

The 11 Commercial Utilities were assessed against 9 key performance indicators that included water supply and sanitation coverage, water quality, water supply hours and metering ratio. Others were collection efficiency, operation and maintenance cost coverage, Non-revenue water and staff efficiency. 

The Report has since changed its name from the Urban and Peri-Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Report to the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Report following the rollout of the Urban Onsite Sanitation and Faecal Sludge Management and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Provision and Regulation Frameworks which mandate service providers to extend service provision to unserved areas such as rural areas.

The full Sector Report can be found on the NWASCO Website www.nwasco.org.zm. 

Officiating the event Mr Mposha urged the Ministry staff to work closely with key stakeholders and expedite the revision of the National Non-Revenue Water Strategy which expired in 2018 so that it is concluded before the end of the second quarter of 2023.

 

Mr. Mposha notes that the implementation of the previous Strategy did not yield positive results hence the revised one must be pragmatic to ensure reduction of high Non-Revenue Water.  

 

He is concerned that the water sector has continued to experience the challenge of high Non-Revenue Water averaging around 50 percent which he said is eroding the financial viability of water utility companies. 

He has observed that high Non-Revenue Water has far-reaching adverse effects on the sustainability of water utility companies in that it results in excess expenditure on electricity for pumping, chemicals and other input costs. 

Meanwhile, the Minister urged the water utility firms to urgently devise measures to improve collection efficiency from their customers as there has been a reduction in revenue collection efficiency.

Speaking at the same event National Water Supply and Sanitation Council Board Chairperson Sylvester Hibajene observed that despite the downward trend, in the performance of the water and sanitation service providers in 2022, some improvements were noted in revenue collections.

He attributed this to the payment of outstanding bills by government institutions. 


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