LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes
@SunZambian
FORTY-SIX boarding houses around Lusaka have been shut by the Lusaka City Council (LCC) for operating illegally and being in poor sanitary state.
The boarding houses were closed after LCC Public Health Inspectors embarked on the exercise of inspecting the facilities in different parts of Lusaka to check their conditions in which they were operating.
In a statement public relations manager, George Sichimba said inspections had revealed that most boarding facilities that housed students from various learning institutions did not have relevant documents to operate as such.
Mr Sichimba said documents needed included a health and business permits, fire certificates and evidence of subscription to waste management systems.
He said at the time of the inspections most houses were also in poor sanitary conditions as some of them had dilapidated sanitary facilities.
“According to Statutory Instrument No. 12 of 2018 (Street Vending and nuisances), Local Government (Solid Waste Management) Regulation 100 of 2011 and the Public Health Act CAP 295 of the Laws of Zambia, it is an offence to operate a boarding house without the above stated documents,
“LCC has embarked on this exercise not to punish students but to protect them from contracting air and water borne diseases,” he said.
Mr Sichimba said due to high demand for bed spaces for students from higher learning institutions, some unscrupulous people were converting their properties into boarding houses and renting them out to unsuspecting students without following procedure.
He said the owners of the boarding houses had been instructed to obtain the necessary documentation from the council and maintain hygiene standards failure to which they risked being prosecuted.
Mr Sichimba said the local authority warned those involved in similar businesses to ensure that they complied with the law to avoid inconveniences.
He also advised the students to report nuisances happening in their boarding houses to council.
