Day 6: Ngombe Settlement, Lusaka

The morning of day 6 saw us all say goodbye to Monze and the Southern Province and head back up to Lusaka for our last 2 days in Zambia. It was a 3 hours drive back up to Lusaka and upon arrival we were taken to the Cresta Golf View Hotel to check in and get ready for our afternoon visit to Ngombe settlement, a pre-intervention high density slum in the centre of Lusaka. I was quite apprehensive about this last visit as I had an image in my head of what it would be like visiting a city centre slum from footage we all see on television. I was prepared for a difficult experience.

The Cresta Golf View Hotel

We left our hotel after lunch for the short drive to Ngombe settlement. Upon arrival we were taken into a community hall for an open forum discussion with representatives from; WaterAid Zambia, the health committee, WASHE Promoters, Keeper Foundation Zambia (NGO), the local council and residents of Ngombe.

The discussion started with introductions and an outline of the history of Ngombe and WaterAid’s involvement. The unplanned settlement is a 3 mile wide slum right in the centre of Lusaka. The population in 2005 was 33,000 and recent years has seen an upsurge taking it to roughly 80,000 today. There is a lot of rural to urban migration in Zambia as men come to the cities looking for work and a better life for their families. The reality is that a lot of them end up in slums like Ngombe.

We were told of the current water and sanitation issues within the slum. The current toilet facilities they have do not give enough privacy. A lot of the families have very simple pits with a simple tarpaulin surround which is only about 4 to 5 foot tall. This does not give adequate privacy as people peer over the top as the toilets are being used. Some families defecate in plastic bags or dig holes. As a result of this, cases of cholera and diarrhoea are very high in some areas.

Some local Ngombe children

Members of the health committee advised that there is a public health act in Zambia but this is extremely difficult to implement in unplanned settlements like Ngombe. The community openly dump their rubbish within the slum which results in large piles of rubbish forming throughout the settlement. They also advised that service provision is extremely difficult and most people are still dependant on shallow wells for their water needs. Due to the size of the population in Ngombe (80,000) there is a scarcity of water. The money given to Ngombe is not enough for the current expansion levels. They have issues with water shortages during the rainy season.

Next we were given some information from Environmental Health. They advised that they have 3 pillars to their current strategy:

1. Promote sanitation,
2. Infrastructure, and
3. Advocacy.

In 20007/08 sanitation promotion was launched. This involved a 3 step approach:

1. Engage the media to promote sanitation.
2. Use advocacy to promote. This involved using the WASHE (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education) promoters to help families understand their human rights e.g. landlords should provide a latrine for every house they own.
3. Infrastructure development: options are explored via advocacy work and promotion.

The WASHE promoters have the role of promoting sanitation and they go from door to door within the community to educate the families on hygiene and their human rights. Drama performances are also used to get these messages across. Families are known to initially challenge these learning’s but it is the WASHE promoters job to bring them around by fully explaining the benefits of hygienic toilet practices and being vocal about their human rights to landowners and councils.  

Within Ngombe around 50 to 60% of the 80,000 population have VIP (Ventilation Improved Pit) or standard pit latrines. Only 3% have flushing toilets but this figure is increasing. Latrines should be more than 26 metres away from any shallow wells but within Ngombe some latrines can be only 10 metres away thus contaminating the supplies.

The Water Trust Manager then gave us a speech about the current water supply. The peri-urban schemes use boreholes instead of the piped supply as there isn’t enough for the unplanned areas. There are 16,000 properties within Ngombe and only 261 have piped water supplies. He told us that there are 68 water kiosks within Ngombe where water can be purchased. Within the richer areas locals pay 50 kwacha for 20 litres of water and families within the unplanned settlements have to pay 100 kwacha, so poorer people pay more. We asked why this was and were advised that there is no government grant for the Water Trust and 50 kwacha left them with no surplus to deliver their services so they had to charge more.

As a result of all the water and sanitation issues within Ngombe diarrhoeal diseases are ranked amongst the top ten diseases. A large amount of Lusaka’s disease cases come from Ngombe.

VIP Latrine – Rosemary Mumba

After our meeting we were then taken further into the slum to meet some of the families and experience first hand some of the issues and work we had just heard about. Our first visit was to Rosemary Mumba and her family.

Rosemary had a Ventilation Improved Pit (VIP) Latrine that was constructed in the community as a demo latrine to encourage others to build similar services. Families would be given materials, which they would be asked to contribute towards depending on what they could afford, and they would then have a latrine constructed for them. A Committee Based Organisation (CBA) constructed the structure of the latrine once Rosemary provided the materials and dug the 3 metre deep pit. Rosemary allows her neighbours to use her toilet if they do not have their own to use. If families do not have their own then they will usually find the nearest one to them but they may be asked to pay to use it by the owner.

Rosemary and her family at their VIP Latrine

Water Point Seller

Next we went to see one of the 68 water kiosks within Ngombe and got the chance to interview the seller. The water point is open from 6am till 10am and 3pm until 6pm every day. It is manned within these hours by a water point worker who will be paid roughly 500,000 kwacha per month (£62). The water point is metered and the seller has the responsibility of reporting back any water losses. If there are losses then this is deducted from their commission.

Me and some local Ngombe children at a water point

As we were walking away from the water point we saw some exposed pipes on the pathway. The pipes had only originally been buried 1 metre underground and due to natural erosion from people using the path they had now become exposed. Sand bags were being used to protect some of the exposed areas.

Ngombe’s Contaminated Stream!

Our next visit was to a stream within Ngombe which is used for day to day tasks. When we arrived there were quite a lot of woman and children there using the stream to carry out their daily chores: bathing, washing clothes and washing crockery. There were also children happily playing in and around the stream.

This was quite difficult to witness as it was quite obvious that the stream was heavily contaminated from the smell and the large pile of rubbish on the banks of the stream. The most disturbing fact we heard was that families living close to the stream had created overflows from their latrines into the stream directly contaminating it with sewage. It was extremely hard to watch children playing in the stream and drinking the water knowing that fact. This was one of the most upsetting things we’d all witnessed so far and it was quite hard to take it all in.

The contaminated stream used for daily tasks

Ngombe Family – Gracie Khowoni

Our last visit of the day was to a household within Ngombe about 50 yards up from the contaminated stream scene. When we got to the families house we saw a young boy collecting water from the shallow well that was on their land. This well was just metres away from the families’ latrine and a metre or so from the contaminated stream. 

The shallow well just yards from their latrine

I went over to have a look at the latrine and it was obvious that this was one of the families who had created an overflow from their latrine into the stream. A hole had been created through the bricks at the base of the latrine and a gulley formed from the hole into the stream to create a run-off. 

The gulley created as an over-flow from the latrine to the stream

We decided to ask the householder about why this was created. Gracie told us that her latrine used to flood during the rainy season so she created the overflow to stop this happening. She was fully aware that it would be contaminating the stream that is used by the community for day to day tasks but she could not afford the 600,000 kwacha (£75) fee to have her latrine emptied. We also asked about the distance between her shallow well and the latrine and was she aware that they should be at least 26 metres apart to stop any contamination of their water source. Gracie advised that they cannot afford to build another latrine as her husband does not work.

Gracie and her family

 After the eye opening visit to Gracie’s house we spoke to a couple of the WASHE promoters about what we had witnessed. They advised that enforcement could get placed on Gracie if the issue is raised to the council but it is likely that her family would be able to pay any resulting fine. They told us that what we had seen is not uncommon in this area. They also advised that the door to door WASHE promotion hadn’t yet reached this area. There are only 6 WASHE promoters for the whole slum so resources are limited. They said that it’s all about creating a demand and that having a latrine was becoming a status symbol which meant others would want to follow suit.

Our visit to Ngombe was extremely difficult and taking in what we were witnessing was not easy. I’ve never seen such poverty before and an area that so dearly needs support and education to enable them to create better lives for themselves. Hopefully WaterAid and the WASHE promoters can help Ngombe and I hope that one day I can return to see the benefits WaterAid will eventually bring to a community in such need of assistance.