KAWAMBWA, Zambia – At 1 a.m., when most of Kawambwa is quiet, Loveness Kabasa can turn on a tap and water still runs.
For her, that simple fact marks a profound change.
“Now we have plenty of water 24/7… even if you wake up around 1 am you will find water,” says Loveness Kabasa who is the head woman in Chifunda neighbourhood in Zambia’s northern town Kawambwa.
Just over two years ago, life looked very different. From late 2022 into 2025, she says, households endured long interruptions. When piped supply failed, families fell back on shallow wells that could run low and turn muddy. “When water was not coming… shallow wells dries up… water becomes muddy,” she recalls.
For women and caregivers, the burden was immediate and personal. Loveness says washing, cooking and other household tasks became harder, and children’s routines suffered when the only available water was unsafe. “My grandchildren… fail to go to school” when water quality dropped, she says.
In this northern Luapula town – where trading routes, farming communities and surrounding villages converge – water reliability is not a technical detail but a daily determinant of health, schooling and livelihoods. In recent years, drought and service disruptions pushed many households back to shallow wells. Today, as supply stabilizes, the shift is visible in ordinary routines: taps running before dawn, children preparing for school, and families no longer planning each day around the next bucket.
From scarcity to continuous supply
Kawambwa’s turnaround is part of a broader effort by Luapula Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LpWSSC), supported through a Water Operators’ Partnership (WOP) with three German utilities – Stadtentwässerung Dresden, Fernwasserversorgung Elbaue-Ostharz (FEO) and Zweckverband Wasser Abwasser Vogtland. The partnership is facilitated through UN-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) with financial support from the European Union.
According to Golden Manyanga, Director of Technical Services at LpWSSC, climate stress and drought had pushed the system to the brink. “Kawambwa was one of the districts which was badly affected by climate change and drought,” he says. “Production had reduced to 600 cubic metres.”
With rehabilitation and operational improvements, output rose sharply. “Because of the intervention of the WOP… production increased to 5,500 cubic metres,” Manyanga says, describing a jump that has translated into round-the-clock service for customers.
He also points to long-neglected infrastructure as a critical bottleneck. A key transmission pipe from source to town had not been maintained for decades, with leakages and vegetation damage. Support from FEO helped refurbish priority sections and restore flow reliability.
A partnership built on practical fixes
In Luapula, the work moved quickly from diagnostics to delivery: teams introduced leakage detection and pressure control, rolled out zone-based monitoring, strengthened maintenance planning and reinforced water quality management, while training staff across operational units. Backed by technical exchanges under the WOP, the utility reports stronger day-to-day system control, more stable treatment operations and measurable progress on non-revenue water.
Project data point to gains at both workforce and system levels. More than 100 staff were trained in treatment processes, standard operating procedures and safety, while the digitalizetion of asset management reached advanced stages of completion. “In Kawambwa, the installation of four solar-powered commercial boreholes enhanced climate resilience and sustainability, fully stabilizing the power supply for core operations and achieving 100 per cent operational reliability,” says Manyanga.
For communities, those system metrics show up in daily life: fewer hours searching for water, more time for school, work and care, and greater confidence in the utility.
Loveness describes that shift in practical terms. During the worst periods, she dug two shallow wells at home to cope. Today, she says, she can wash clothes when needed, pay bills without conflict and use e-payment from home. “Now that water is coming out I feel happy… I happily pay my bills.”
Trust restored, one household at a time
LpWSSC serves a province where poverty is high and service delivery conditions are difficult, making operational recovery especially significant. The wider WOP aims to strengthen long-term utility performance so that infrastructure investments are matched by the capacity to run and maintain systems sustainably.
In Kawambwa, that long-term goal is already visible in small moments: a grandmother no longer queuing at muddy wells, children less likely to miss school because of unsafe water, and a community beginning to trust that water will still be there tomorrow morning – and at 1 a.m.
For Loveness, the story is simple: “Now water just comes clean.”