LOCAL STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION
O
ur Western Zambia Safe Water Project recently completed its Local Stakeholder Consultation (LSC) event.
The project has already been running for a couple of years, but due to COVID-19 restrictions in the country, the stakeholder event had been delayed and CO2balance had until now not had the opportunity to visit the project, meet with the local partners and check on overall progress.
The LSC was very successful- with 99 participants registering on arrival. Whilst the participants were made up of many different groups, including local dignitaries from the Barotseland Royal Council, District Councillors, Water Board representatives and local NGOs, CO2balance were especially pleased by the turnout from local beneficiaries of the project, with the event especially well attended by women from the borehole communities.
The event lasted around 4 hours with lots of lively discussions, group break-out activities, and positive feedback for CO2balance and project partners ECHO to consider moving forwards. You can read more details about the LSC here.
SITE VISITS
The project area in Western Province, is a stunning region of Zambia which includes huge areas through
which the Zambezi flows and floods during rainy season- owing to the popularity of fishing locally. However, despite the seasonal flood waters of the Zambezi, the region as a whole is incredibly dry and arid for most of the year, with sandy roads and tracks often adding to the accessibility challenges of the project partner during rehabs and maintenance visits.
Co2balance were with the team in Western province for almost a week and experienced firsthand the challenges the local partner faces from the local terrain- making the almost 200 rehabbed boreholes to date (and counting…) an impressive feat.
The project continues to expand as thousands of families are able to rely on safe water from boreholes which, on some occasions, had been broken for years prior to the implementation of the project.