AT least 54% of Zambia’s 9,8-million citizens are forced to drink untreated water containing everything from Cholera to microbes that cause blindness, diarrhoea and other potentially fatal diseases, Zambian health authorities said at the weekend. Central Board of Health (CBH) director general Galvin Silwamba confirmed on Saturday that only 46% of Zambians have access to safe drinking water. The rest, he said, are extremely vulnerable to water-borne diseases. “For every 1000 live births, an average of 110 children die from diarrhoea or diseases related to drinking contaminated water before they celebrated their first birthday,” he said.