News stories by Lewis Mwanangombe, page 2

Josias Akataama spent March watching the moon wane above, and flood waters rise from below. Only with the sighting of the new moon, would the men, women and children of Kandiani know when they could leave the water-logged village for higher ground.

Four a.m. finds Idah Choolwe walking to find water. Every day during the dry season, she sets off before sunrise to where a slow trickle of brackish water rises in a dry river bed. Eight kilometres. Each way.

When he ordered his colleagues at the Water and Sanitation Association of Zambia to save all their urine in a plastic bottle in the office toilet, they thought he was mad. But German sanitation specialist Christopher Kellner wanted to demonstrate why he calls urine 'liquid gold'.

The Litunga of Barotseland, King of the Lozi, has no judicial or legislative authority. No supervisory control over government projects, and worst of all he cannot stand for elected office. Yet successive Zambian presidents have deferred to him.

Prisca Musonda is an ardent supporter of Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata and his party. She has travelled with him to most parliamentary constituencies campaigning in elections.

Harry Mubita was tired of his wretched condition in prison. He had been in Lusaka Central Prison for more than a year, and still there was no sign that his theft case would be heard.

When Obed Mumba first came to the Zambian copper mining town of Ndola in search of work, it was still known reverently as 'Ku kalale' - the land of the white man. In the decades since, he has witnessed his Kabushi township outgrow the limited dreams of its planners.

For 70 minutes, the girls in the distinctive gold-and-green jersey of Brazil shut out the attacks by the visiting team. The bare feet of chubby-faced left back Njavwa Silungwe are lively in defence.