ZAMBIA and Botswana last week signed a US$161 million deal which will see the construction of a modern bridge at the border town of Kazungula where currently, any form of traffic uses a ferry to cross the border.
Obviously, this is a huge investment for Zambian and Botswana governments as the two Southern African nations try to develop their economies. For Zambia, this bridge will make it a land linked country since it’s already land locked.
But this development will come at a cost to the general populations of the two countries and obviously, other nearby countries such as Namibia and Zimbabwe. The biggest challenge is the threat of HIV/AIDS since a minimum of 2,000 people will be employed on site during the construction phase of the bridge whose works are scheduled to start early next year.
The issue of migrant labour brings about a lot of men who leave their families behind to come and work for periods of two to three years, as in the case of the Kazungula Bridge.
The question is: Is Kazungula (both Zambia and Botswana sides), ready to cope with looming influx of people that will be connected one way or another in the construction of the bridge.
What about another group of migrant labour, the sex workers? Certainly these will flock to Kazungula where there will be big business for them.
Remember that Kazungula by virtue of being a border town where lots of inter-country trucks pass has its own share of sex workers already working from there.
Now with the coming of this project, reports suggest that the few sex workers in Kazungula are already sending word around the country to their colleagues to join them as reinforcements.
Where does this leave the preparedness of stakeholders to put in place effective interventions and responses during and after the construction of the bridge?
A fortnight ago, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in conjunction with the National AIDS Council (NAZ) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat, organised a four day meeting in Livingstone where stakeholders came together to discuss the issue of the impact of the Kazungula Bridge project, especially in respect of HIV/AIDS.
Thanks to UNDP and NAC for extending an invitation for me to be a participant at this meeting.
This meeting was timely as it coincided with the signing ceremony of the project between Zambia and Botswana at Protea Hotel, the same venue where the meeting was also taking place.
Participants to the meeting observed, among other issues, that Kazungula would:
-Experience an increased HIV burden and other new infections with the coming of the bridge.
-Inadequate resources to cope with the projected increased burden on quality health services
-There should be more presence of government structures, eg DACA
-Establishment of Community AIDS task force
-There should be collaboration with neighbouring Botswana in all interventions
– Promotion of behavioural change is cardinal Dr Vitalis Chpfakacha from the SADC Secretariat said SADC wants the region to have a holistic approach to health and social issues in the region and to achieve this, it encourages public private partnerships.
Fred Muyamwa from the Zambia Environmental Management Authority (ZEMA) told the participants that stakeholders in Livingstone, Kazungula and Kasani identified that HIV/AIDS is an issue in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). He said focus is not on the project per se and the negative impact it would have on the spread of HIV because Kazungula is already a high risk area.
He said the stakeholders identified lack of adequate health centres, especially on the Zambian side. The terms of reference did not include
health (HIV) specialist as a team member while stakeholders like the Ministry of Health did not bring out the inadequate health care facilities and its implications on the project.
Mr Muyamwa said the environmental management plan for the project was a big failure as activities to mitigate the spread of HIV are missing and hence no budget to stop the spread. He said the project presents a complex situation because there are two main environments driving the spread of HIV; the project and the border.
But project manager of the bridge Moses Nyawali said most of the issues raised by ZEMA had been addressed in the revised project design
to which ZEMA said it was shocked that there was a revised version which to-date has not been presented to ZEMA and wondered how the project was going ahead without ZEMA’s approval.
Well, these are some of the issues about the Kazungula Bridge project and I am sure stakeholders will iron them out as the project progresses and I am sure we can still share some more on this project maybe next week. For now I pen off.
For comments get me on knoxngoma@gmail.com or SMS/call +260955883143