Maravi

Chama is rich in minerals, says Sichone

Chama is rich in minerals, says Sichone
By Moses Kuwema
Tue 13 Dec. 2011, 12:00 CAT

CHAMA district has a lot of untapped mineral resources, says Muchinga Province minister Malozo Sichone. In an interview after a familiarisation tour of Chama district, Sichone said the creation of the Muchinga Province will help attract investors to places like Chama.

"The coming of the new province will help in the sense that Chama was the biggest district in Eastern Province and so close to Chinsali and Isoka. Chama is rich in mineral resources and the coming of Muchinga will help attract investors to develop the area," said Sichone, who is also Isoka member of parliament.

Sichone also said Chama faced a lot of challenges, among them poor road infrastructure and high poverty levels.

"...I think one of the challenges is that the poverty levels are too high and you can see that people struggle to have food on their table.

The other challenge is that during the rainy season, coming here, we will have to fly into Chama; it will be cut off since there is no bridge on Luangwa River. The road infrastructure, even the feeder roads are bad, they are very dilapidated and then there is no filling station; just as Chinsali. Not only that, there are several other facilities which are not in place," Sichone said.

He bemoaned the lack of a bridge connecting Chama to Matumbo across Luangwa River.

"The previous government left heaps of material which was meant for a bridge across the Luangwa River which would connect Matumbo and Chama and in 2008 during the by-elections, the residents complained after they brought some more and after the elections, they started transporting the materials back," said Sichone.

"A lot of these materials are still lying idle and it is clear that this project was funded and if it was funded, the materials cost billions of kwacha. I think it is something that we will need to look at with the Ministry of Works and Supply to find out who did what and why did that happen?".

Labels: MINING

posted by MrK @ 2:46 PM