Road network cheers chief
A TRADITIONAL leader in Kalomo District of Southern Province has praised government for the many developmental projects that have taken place in his chiefdom since 2016.
Chief Chikankata of the Tonga speaking people of Dundumwezi area says that his people appreciated the development that government had taken to the area particularly the road infrastructure.
He said that previously, his chiefdom had a challenge of road network and telecommunications but since the construction of Kalomo Namwala Itezhi tezhi road under the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR), this had improved the movements of people and goods to the neighboring districts.
Chief Chikankata said that some of his subjects who lived near the Kafue National Park connecting to Ngoma Camp were now calling upon him to go and see how their lives had improved.
He was speaking in Livingstone recently during the Southern Province agriculture and climate change Indaba, the first to be held in the province.
The traditional leader insisted that the Kalomo- Dundumwezi-Itezhi Tezhi Namwala roads project under the Strengthening Climate Resilience in the Kafue Basin (SCRiKA) was a significant project for socio-economic development of the country.
The project was done under the Improvement to climate Resilient Standards, of the strategic Roads in the Kafue River Basin under the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR).
“This is the only intervention that has worked so far under the SCRICA program in my chiefdom.
Road network has been a problem in Chikankata and there is a ward near the Kafue National Park leading to Ngoma which has benefited from the program,” he said.
“We really appreciate government and we know that even these other things that have been requested will be done including the embankment on the Namwala Itezhi tezhi road on the Kafue river will be done,” said Chief Chikankata.
“I spoke to President Lungu when he came to commission the road and requested him to help us work on the embankment and he (President Lungu) assured me it will be done,” he said.
The traditional leader said that the issue of the road used to be a problematic going into Kafue National Park through Ngoma but now, “they are calling on me as chief to go and see the success story that has come from the program.”