KITWE Town Clerk Bornwell Lwanga says the city has 28 unplanned settlements and is in the process of upgrading five areas.

Mr Lwanga said the city had a population of 522,092 and that 40 per cent of the population live in unplanned settlements.

He said in his presentation on the current challenges and future development plans in Kitwe at the Airtel Northern Region Media Club forum at the weekend that residents living in unplanned settlements were faced with lack of clean and safe drinking water.

The town clerk said the residents were also faced with inferior housing structures, poor road network, lack of storm drainage facilities and poor waste disposal system.

"There are 28 unplanned settlements in Kitwe, nine have been upgraded and five are in the process of being upgraded," he said.

Mr Lwanga said there were two laws that addressed unplanned settlements namely; the Housing (Statutory and Improvement Areas) Act Cap 194.and the Town and Country Planning Act Cap 283.

He said the laws were at variance, with the former advocating for improving unplanned settlements, while the latter supports the demolition of unplanned areas.

Mr Lwanga said the local authority faced political pressures in the previous administration in the upgrading of certain resettlement's.

He said the Kitwe City Council strategic plan for 2012 to 2016 outlined how the council would tackle development in the city and that the Local Government Service Commission would among other things address human capacity at the council through recruitment of qualified staff.