Maravi

East chief yet to see govt development

East chief yet to see govt development
By Christopher Miti in Chadiza
Sun 12 June 2011, 03:59 CAT

CHIEF Mwangala says he has not seen the development that the government has been boasting about because his people have continued to wallow in poverty and lack even basic amenities including clean drinking water.

In an interview on Friday, chief Mwangala of the Chewa people in Eastern Province supported his fellow traditional leader chief Pembamoyo’s suggestion urging the media to go to rural areas and see what development was obtaining on the ground because people in rural areas were still facing a lot of hardships.

He said a lot of people spent sleepless nights in villages in search of water from streams and that it was important for the media to see for themselves the situation on the ground.

“We hear people say development has gone everywhere in Zambia, but we don’t see this development with our eyes. We don’t see it with our eyes because we the chiefs are the ones who live with the people.

Other people will just end here ( reach the boma) and say everything is okay everywhere in the district,” chief Mwangala said. “Just imagine, they said we will sink boreholes at chiefs’ palaces but where are they?”

He said he was merely talking about the problems that people faced in Chadiza and not attacking anybody.

“What we have said are the problems that we face. It’s not that we are just quick to say this but what we have said is what we should be appealing to government to do for us. Sometimes a member of parliament can say there is a lot of development in my area but that’s just the opinion of that particular parliamentarian,” chief Mwangala said.

He said while the mobile hospitals could go a long way in helping the local people, the challenge was the bad state of roads.

“For development to take place a road is needed. We don’t have roads.

Even now it becomes difficult for government officials to reach us here where we live. Our roads are not reliable and during the rainy season many programmes are suspended even school pupils face difficulties in crossing streams. Government is for all of us but we are appealing to the government to maintain roads,” chief Mwangala
said.

He said the government had worked on a number of schools in his chiefdom but that the biggest challenge was on health centres. And chief Pembamoyo also commended government for the provision of mobile hospitals but also expressed concern over the bad state of roads.

He said the bad roads now appeared like the biggest punishment to the people in his area.

“We have appealed to government time and again to repair roads because even investors can come if we have good roads, so this is a setback to the people of Pembamoyo. Most of our roads are very bad, even roads that lead to graveyards are better,” chief Pembamoyo said.

He appealed to thegovernment to expedite the process of improving the communication system in Pembamoyo area and to sink boreholes because people from about 70 villages were forced to share drinking water with animals at the streams.

Labels: CHIEF MWANGALA, DEVELOPMENT, EASTERN PROVINCE, MMD

posted by MrK @ 2:39 PM