ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc (ZCCM-IH) will continue with the “Clean Water for Zambia” project this year by sinking 18 boreholes in remote areas of the country at a total cost of K1.2 million.

ZCCM-IH owes its continued existence, to the mining industry, where, at the moment, virtually all of its investments are held. As an investment company, majority-owned by Government on behalf of the Zambian people, we believe that our corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are expected to spurn the entire country.

ZCCM-IH embarked on the “Clean Water for Zambia” project in 2016, focused on sinking a number of boreholes as its core sustainable social corporate investment. The boreholes were earmarked for remote areas of the country with little or no access to clean and safe water. So far, ZCCM-IH sunk two boreholes in Sinda District in two separate communities with approximately eight thousand community members in total.

With access to clean and safe drinking water, water borne diseases subside and living standards improve, among others. Safe and clean water will also greatly improve the health of mothers, infants and children and consequently reduce the maternal neonatal mortality rate in Zambia. There is also a visible correlation between improvement of girls’ education and access to safe clean water as well as the empowerment of women.

Women and girls move long distances to fetch water and end up using a lot of hours in a day on this activity when they could otherwise be engaged in other social economic activities that would improve their livelihoods such as income generating ventures or education.

This project is aimed at contributing to targets under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number six which aims at “Ensuring access to water and sanitation for all”. Statistics indicate that more than one third of Zambia’s population does not have access to clean water.