By CLAVER MUTINTA – in Kalumbila
A CRITICAL water shortage has hit Lumwana General Hospital after borehole pump motors were damaged by lightning last week, forcing management to concentrate on emergency cases only, hospital sources have said.
Kalumbila District Commissioner Robinson Kalota confirmed the shortage of water at the institution, but said it was caused by the failure to fix the correct pipes to the pumps.
All toilets have been sealed, out-patients and visitors to the hospital were being directed to use the nearby bushes to answer the call of nature.
Hospital staff who sought anonymity said the institution was operating normally, though there was insufficient water to carry out operations in the theatre where plenty of water was required.
“The only challenge we have had is that we haven’t had sufficient water to do the cleaning around, especially in theatre which requires significant amounts of water,” the hospital staff said.
“We are not doing what is called elective cases (cases that we book in advance); we are only dealing with emergency cases at the moment. So, when emergency cases come, we deal with them, but we are not working on elective cases at the moment.”
They said the hospital was fully functional, as it had resorted to using a discarded small pump to obtain water from a borehole into four 500 litres plastic containers positioned in strategic places.
The source said though there was a water challenge, hospital management had done its best to sort out the water problem, stating that it had so far acquired two new motors at a cost of K12,000.
“Unfortunately, since we were using GI pipes, [metallic pipes], when we tried to put back the pumps, they slipped from the hinge, went down and got stuck in the mud.  We have tried to get PVC pipes for the pump one, which came and will be fitted,” the source said.
And the district commissioner said the water shortage came about because of fitting wrong pipes which kept giving problems to the water source.
“The metal pipes which carried water from the borehole to the main tank developed faults because of tying and untying whenever there is a fault, so the threads got worn out, that is the actual position.
“It’s not that there was lightning or whatever, those are speculations. It is about the source which pushes the water to the main tank to supply the hospital because wrong pipes were used,” he said. – Story courtesy of SUMA SYSTEMS