Lusaka residents whose loved ones have been missing for some time have been urged to check with the University Teaching Hospital’s (UTH) mortuary. There are 29 unclaimed bodies at the UTH mortuary and the Lusaka City Council will bury the corpses if no one identifies them in the next 14 days.

The local authority has received a request from UTH for it to help bury 29 unclaimed bodies which have been lying in the institution’s mortuary for sometime now, leading to an unpleasant environment. The bodies have also caused congestion in the mortuary, hence the need to decongest the facility.

Lusaka City Council public relations manager George Sichimba said the local authority will this week issue a notice for members of the public to go and identify the unclaimed bodies at UTH.

“LCC will cause a public notice in the press about its intention to bury the 29 unclaimed bodies. This is in accordance with the provisions of Section 61, Paragraph 41 of the Second Schedule of the Local Government Act Cap 281 of the Laws of Zambia,” Mr Sichimba said.
He said in accordance with the law, 14 days will be assigned in the notice for members of the general public to claim or identify any of the bodies and conduct burial.

“At the expiry of the assigned period, all the bodies which will not have been claimed will be buried,” Mr Sichimba said.
He said this is the first time this year that the council will be burying unclaimed bodies from UTH, an exercise likely to cost over K50,000.
Last year, the local authority spent K200,000 to bury 126 unclaimed bodies.