EVERY human being has a right to live in a clean environment and no person should be subjected to harmful gases or toxic conditions which may be deadly or harmful to their health.
The Ministry of Health and the Zambia Environmental Management Authority should understand this better because they are the custodian of the people’s health and well-being.
In our Tuesday January 22, 2019 edition, we carried a story about how an incinerator at Chipata Level 1 Hospital in Lusaka, has been emitting foul smoke which is affecting the health of people in nearby households, like that of Mr. Kennedy Makukula, whose house is located about 3 metres from the sanitation facility.
What is even more worrying about this situation is the fact that the affected people, like Mr. Makukula, made efforts to complain to the Ministry of Health and ZEMA about the air pollution, using the right procedure, and yet nothing has so far come out of it because the officials have been slow to act.
It is also clear from the report that the affected people, like Mr. Makukula for instance, built their houses (in 1970) at the premises long before the clinic was built (in 1980) or the incinerator was installed (in 2014). They therefore stand as the early or initial settlers on the premises who deserve to be treated with respect and be given an opportunity to be listened to.
It would be wrong for the Ministry of Health and ZEMA to ignore them particularly that it involves a matter which is about life and death.
