Senior chief Musele of Kalumbila District in North-Western Province has appealed to government through the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) to connect his community to the electricity grid.

Speaking when Kalumbila Minerals Limited (KML) handed over a newly-built Mukila Wantambu Community School to government, senior chief Musele observed that REA had over the years prioritised many other areas in facilitating and connecting them to the national electricity grid, while his chiefdom remained ignored.

He also observed that the absence of electricity had contributed to the lack of development in his chiefdom.

The traditional leader noted that while there was no electricity in the Musele chiefdom, the area hosted one of Zambia’s mining giants, Kalumbila, owned by Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals (FQM).

“Today, our community here is receiving this newly-built school. This is just one of several other projects FQM and Kalumbila Minerals have been delivering to our community for which we forever remain grateful. However, if we are to address challenges associated with poor performance by our school children here, we need to also look at other overriding factors, such as lack of electricity,” senior chief Musele said.

He added that while FQM was doing everything possible to provide the much-needed development to his chiefdom as a way of ploughing back into the community where they operated, government development agencies also needed to prioritise development in the area.

The traditional leader cited an ongoing water reticulation programme being undertaken by Kalumbila Minerals as one of the major projects that urgently needed government support by allowing taxes raked from the area to facilitate other equally important developmental plans.

FQM, through KML assistant general manager Gordon White, who handed over the community school informed the traditional leader that the mining company would continue to do its best in supporting development in the area.

And Provincial Education Officer (PEO) Grace Sikolongo, representing government, who hailed KML for the many community development programmes the mine delivered in the area, equally assured the traditional leader his message would be conveyed to higher authorities.

– Story courtesy of SUMA SYSTEMS.