By REBECCA MUSHOTA  –
GOVERNMENT has put up measures to reduce deaths and damage caused to equipment due to lightning, Deputy Minister in the Vice-President’s Office Lazarus Chungu has said.
Mr Chungu said yesterday that Government supports the formation of the Zambia Centre for Lightning and Electromagnetics which has mechanisms for early warning of lightning and subsequently will mitigate deaths and damage caused by the natural hazards.
He was speaking yesterday at the symposium and official launch of the Zambia Centre for Lightning and Electromagnetics in Lusaka.
“During the 2014/2015 rainy season, property and lives have been lost through lightning related activities. For example three people were burnt in a house after the grass thatched house in which they were sleeping was struck by lightning,” Mr Chungu said.
He said many lives had been lost while property had been damaged in the past years due to lightning.
This has had a toll on human resources and equipment necessary to the development of the country.
Government was hopeful, therefore, that the centre would provide early warning of the natural hazard and prevent certain deaths and damage to equipment.
Mr Chungu said Government was grateful to the Centre for Science and Technology for Non-aligned and other Developing countries (NAM S&T) as well as other cooperating partners for their support in the formation of the Zambian centre.
Zambia and Uganda are the only countries in Africa to set up national centres on lightning.
NAM S&T director general Arun Kulshreshtha said effects of lightning was one of the many challenges developing countries faced.
Professor Kulshreshtha said countries needed to share knowledge on the ways to mitigate dangers of lightning to protect lives and equipment.
He urged the United Nations to set aside a day to commemorate lightning.
Delegates from 14 countries attended the symposium.