By KENNEDY MUPESENI –

GOVERNMENT will this year spend K140 million on dam constructions and rehabilitation across the country which will make water harvesting a reality, thereby increase agricultural activities.
Ministry of Energy and Water Development acting director in charge of water affairs Howard Mpamba said the country was going through a water challenge, hence the need to put measures to sustain economic activities such as farming which depends on  water.
“We will spend about K140 million to construct, as well as rehabilitate  about 40 dams across the country to deal with the water crisis the country is going through,” Dr Mpamba said.
He was speaking in an interview in Gwembe District in Southern Province when a team of experts from the department of water affairs, led by Energy and Water Affairs permanent secretary in charge of water development Ed Chomba, toured the area to check on the water situation.
Dr Mpamba said Government wanted to increase on water harvesting and construction of dams and maintaining the existing ones to support economic activities across the country.
“We are building about  17 dams countrywide, rehabilitating 13 dams  and for Southern Province, we are rehabilitating a total of six boreholes, two in Gwembe, another two in Pemba, two new ones, each in Zimba and  Kalomo respectively,”  he said.
Gwembe District, despite being one of the agricultural areas, faces a lot of challenges in accessing both surface and ground water.
Bishop Chomba said the area had a lot of agriculture potential, pledging that Government would not rest until the water challenges were solved.
“We are going to do everything possible to ease the challenge of water so that people could lead normal lives especially that the district has potential for both arable and pastoral agriculture,” he said.
Bishop Chomba urged the technocrats in the water sector to employ the best technology to solve the current water crisis the country was facing.
“I want to see the phasing out of the old technology in the water sector.
Why are we still using the India mark II pumps, which require a lot of energy? We need to migrate to the use of solar for water pumping and put up some pipes so that water reaches the door steps of households,” he said.