Thu, 18 Jan 2018 11:12:03 +0000
By JACKSON MAPAPAYI
A COMBINED team of Mwinilunga District town council police and health inspectors, Zambia Police and the Zambia army swung into action at the weekend and demolished illegal makeshift stores to keep the central business district clean and prevent the possible outbreak of Cholera.
Council secretary Kennedy Kasanda says the removal of street vendors, demolition and cleaning exercise that took place in the central business district and trading places are measures taken by government to prevent citizens from contracting disease.
Mr Kasanda said measures that government had put in place to prevent the disease from spreading to other parts of the country were critical steps to achieving sustainable development goals on reducing inequality and good health for all which must be supported by all stakeholders.
“Yes, all illegal makeshift structures within the Central Business District have been demolished in bid to avoid the outbreak and spread of cholera in the district,” Mr Kasanda said.
He said Zambia was a unitary state of which Mwinilunga district is part of, adding that government had a moral obligation to care for all the citizens hence the directive to ensure that preventive measures in the district were undertaken to avoid the outbreak of the disease.
Mr Kasanda said the cleaning exercise and removal of street vendors that took place last week was not done out of malice but in good faith for the benefit of all the people in the district.
“So people should not politicise this move because it is meant to preserve their lives,” he said.
He has since appealed to all people in the district to adhere to high standards of personal hygiene and keep their surroundings clean.
He assured vendors who were displaced from the streets that they would soon be relocated to the main market.
