WE ARE SITTING ON A TIMEBOMB
Zambia’s population today: 20,986,170. Just under 21 million that’s the Zambia Statistics Agency’s own number.
By 2041, sixteen years from now, we will be 32 to 35 million.
That’s 11.7 million more people. A 51% increase. And this is the part that should stop you cold: it is not a forecast. It is already locked in.
46% of Zambians alive today are under fifteen. Those children are already born. They will become parents in the 2030s whether any government plans for it or not. Even a fertility collapse with no precedent anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa would not stop us reaching 30 million.
The only question left is not whether this happens. It’s what state we’re in when it does.
And today, before one more person is added, we already have serious deficits in housing, education, health, water, power, jobs. Over the next sixteen years, we have to close those gaps AND absorb twelve million more people into homes, schools, clinics, taps and jobs that don’t exist yet.
This is the time bomb.
We walk through what it means, sector by sector. Not sixteen years from now. Today, with the population we already have.
Tomorrow, why this is not just a Lusaka problem.
Fred M’membe
SP President
Bwana, always talking but no solutions, let’s lessen talking now and support the Grow Zambia Agenda. Do you know that talking about problems without offering or suggesting solutions is useless . It’s like you are just making noise. What will happen when we become 30 million and we are still lazing around? Who will come to feed us or give us money? Is it not ourselves to grow Zambia? We all need to embrace the Grow Zambia Agenda and work hard to realize our goals. Solutions to most of our problems are already there and we all need to work with and support the president to grow Zambia. The next five years needs more working and less talking. These articles you write everyday do not help us at all. Ati we are sitting on a time bomb, so what? Whom do you want to remove it if it’s not yourself?