NITROGEN Chemicals of Zambia has announced that it will soon demolish over 200 houses allegedly built on its land in Kafue’s Flash Butt area.

NCZ chief executive officer Zuze Banda disclosed this when UPND Kafue member of parliament Miriam Chonya and district commissioner Joseph Kamana toured the fertiliser manufacturing company.

He said NCZ had warned the developers several times to stop building on its land but most of them had ignored the warning.

“Honourable MP, NCZ has in the recent past recorded high cases of thefts. We used to have a security wire fence but it was brought down and people from Zambia Compound would get into the bagging area and steal bags of fertiliser. At times they would even throw stones at the guard until the guard runs away and then they start grabbing bags of fertiliser. This is why we have decided to erect this wall fence to prevent thefts. One other thing I want to bring to your attention is that NCZ will soon demolish all houses in this area (Flash Butt) which have been built on our land,” Banda said

He said the land was classified as a dangerous area as this was where pipes that carry hazardous chemicals to the lagoons were located.

“By law no one should build two kilometres near a pipe carrying dangerous chemicals, and we wonder why these people were allowed to build permanent structures in such a dangerous area. Also it will be very difficult for our cranes to access the area where pipes are in case they want to work on them because people have built houses less than two metres from pipes. This leaves us with no option but to demolish the structures,” he said.

Chonya urged NCZ to engage the developers and find an amicable way of resolving the matter.

“CEO, l hope this demolition won’t be too soon, hopefully it should be in the next generation. Anyway this is sad news and I pray that you can engage all stakeholders and come up with a win-win situation through amicable means,” she said.

But some Flash Butt developers talked to wondered why NCZ was claiming that the land they have built on was its land when they bought the plots from Kafue District Council.

James Ngambi, who spoke on behalf of the other developers, said they would not allow anyone to demolish any building in Flash Butt because they legally acquired the plots from the council.

“We will not tolerate these threats from NCZ of demolishing our houses because these plots were bought from the council. This is a planned settlement, which is serviced by Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company and Zesco. NCZ should go to the council where we bought these plots,” Ngambi said

When contacted for a comment, Kafue District Council Secretary Aaron Kamalonda said he was not aware of the planned demolition exercise by NCZ.