When Knowledge Cannot Solve Reality: What the UNZA Sewer Tragedy Reveals About Zambia’s Education System
By Dr David Phiri (shall we save Zambia)
The recent tragic death of a student at the University of Zambia (UNZA), after falling into a sewer system, is not just an isolated incident. It is a national alarm bell—one that exposes deeper structural failures within Zambia’s education system, particularly in how we train our engineers.
This is not merely a story about poor sanitation. It is a story about a system where knowledge exists, but solutions do not.
At the heart of this tragedy lies a glaring sanitation crisis. UNZA hostels are reportedly facing severe challenges due to a blocked sewer line—an issue that has persisted long enough to become life-threatening.
Even more concerning is the limited human resource available to respond to such a crisis. With a student population of approximately 45,000, the university reportedly has fewer than ten maintenance engineers. This imbalance is not only unsustainable—it is dangerous.
To make matters worse, there are indications that the institution lacks proper documentation of its own infrastructure. The inability to trace and map sewer lines has reportedly forced authorities to call upon former maintenance staff to assist in identifying the system layout. In a modern institution of higher learning, such a situation is nothing short of alarming.
What makes this situation deeply troubling is not just the failure itself, but where it is happening.
UNZA is one of Zambia’s leading institutions for engineering education. It trains civil engineers, mechanical engineers, environmental specialists, and water and sanitation experts—the very professionals expected to solve problems like this.
Even more striking is the fact that many students on campus already possess prior technical qualifications. Some have diplomas in plumbing, water engineering, and related fields. In essence, the university is sitting on a vast pool of human capital.
Yet, despite this, the problem remains unresolved.
This raises a fundamental question: What is the value of education if it cannot solve the problems in our immediate environment?
This is not simply about UNZA. It reflects a broader issue within Zambia’s education system—a disconnect between theory and practice.
In other fields, such a gap would be unthinkable. Consider the model of a teaching hospital. Even with a limited number of fully qualified doctors, medical students actively participate in patient care. They diagnose, manage, and stabilize patients under supervision. Their learning is practical, immediate, and life-impacting.
Why should engineering be any different?
Even without full professional certification, engineering students can contribute meaningfully—whether through diagnostics, temporary fixes, system mapping, or preventive maintenance strategies. Waiting for a handful of qualified engineers while thousands of capable students remain passive observers represents a failure of imagination and system design.
The situation forces us to confront an uncomfortable question: Are we producing competent engineers, or merely graduates?
If engineering students cannot engage with and help resolve real-life challenges within their own campus, then the system is not preparing them adequately for the demands of the real world.
Education should not culminate at graduation—it should demonstrate its value long before that moment.
If Zambia is to avoid similar tragedies and build a truly functional education system, a shift toward competence-based learning is essential.
Students must be equipped with hands-on abilities alongside theoretical knowledge. Engineering education should emphasize real-world problem-solving from the earliest stages of training.
Long vacations should not be idle periods. They should be structured opportunities for skill acquisition. Civil engineering students should gain experience in bricklaying, plumbing, and construction. Mechanical students should engage in workshops. Learning must extend beyond the classroom.
Students must also be trained to serve while they learn. Universities should create systems where students actively contribute to solving institutional and community problems. Service should not be optional—it should be foundational.
The loss of a student at UNZA is a painful reminder of what is at stake when systems fail. But it also presents an opportunity—an opportunity to rethink, redesign, and rebuild our approach to education.
A functional education system is not measured by the number of graduates it produces, but by the problems its learners can solve.
Until Zambia bridges the gap between knowledge and application, we risk producing generations of educated individuals who are unable to transform the realities around them.
Dr Davud Phiri what prifession are you? Perhaps a Doctor of human medicine, going by the example of what happens at UTH in terms of training medical personnel. Certainly you are not an engineer. And there comes your problem. It is ignorance on your part to emphasize that simply because UNZA has many many students learning in the School of Engineering, then UNZA technical commercial problems should readily be solvable. First of all what has a student in School of Engineering got to do with UNZA’s sewer system problem? Is it his or her job to resolve? Is the student in school of engineering educated to solve sewer system blockades , repairs or the like? Yours is a serious exposure of ignorance first of all of who is an engineer in Zambia. Is everyone. The attitude that whoever puts on boots, overalls and reflector jacket is an engineer is a mistaken one. Lets distinguish between engineers and Technicians. A technician plumber student is more likely to have his or her cariculum include daily field practical work that an engineering student at a university. But then dont blame the engineering student for not having daily field works on maintainance of sewer pipes or anything. The student of engineering at a University, their job is to learn the scientific theories behind technological sysrems, material, machines or structures. Such learning involves understanding complex engineering mathematics, complex physics and chemistry, how these theories are applied in the industry to produce goods and services. It is way beyond going out daily into the field participating in resolving sewer pipes and their blockades and maintenance. In any case, there is no system of learning at UNZA school of engineering which involves going out daily to participate in how things are done in practice. Which platform would that be at the university. The university does not have a mining industry within UNZA grounds, no road works within Unza grounds, etc. These works are elsewhere in the industry. How then can you compare medical students whose UTH for example is in itself a University teaching hospital? This is unfair. Are we also going to have a University teaching mining company? Or a university teaching construction company where students of engineering will be participating as part of training daily? And if medical students need daily practical participation, is it also necessary for engineering students? When did it become insufficient the 3 months total time requirement for industrial attachment b4 graduating?
In sumnary, the hands on players in our Engineering pratice are basically our technicians from colleges. Engineers get in planning and design offices when they graduate, not going out to operate a Grader or unblock a sewer pipe. Of course then, the design of the system is engineer’s job, but the issue at unza is that of maintenance. Furthermore, a student at unza canmot initiate , let alone carry out maintence of the sewer system when he is only a student. If there is anyone to blame, it is the UNZA Management which obviously has its own experienced engineers working as engineers. If they are only 8 as you say, you still miss the point when you say the students of engineering should get involved as a result. Get involved through what mechanism and on what knowledge basis? They are not training as technicians but as specialized design engineers at a much higher level and their time at UNZA has no space for responding to plumbing matters as such.