By PASSY HAACHIZO –
The Lukanga Water and Sewerage Company (LgWSC) has warned that it will disconnect water to its customers with outstanding bills.
About 14,000 out of 24,000 customers in Central Province owe the water utility huge sums of money.
LgWSC public relations manager King Syacika said it was unfortunate that the company was owed over K27 million in unpaid bills and arrears by Government departments, domestic and commercial customers.
Mr Syacika said it was disheartening that some clients had failed to abide by the law in line with the Water and Sanitation Act number 28 of 1997.
He noted that the outstanding bills had made it difficult for the company to operate at a profit.
Mr Syacika said despite water coming from rivers and boreholes, some costs were incurred in the process of abstracting the commodity from the source, treat it and pump it to every tap.
“In Kabwe for example, we have to pump some of our water from as far as Mulungushi Dam 20 kilometres away.
“In addition to this, we put up and maintain the sewerage network and ensure that waste water reaches the sewerage plants for treatment costs which are even more,” he said.
Mr Syacika called on its clients to speed up payments so that the company could continue to operate effectively.
He said if clients paid, the money would be used to improve operations which would eventually benefit customers.
