President Chakwera sees for himself pathetic standards of Mwanza Secondary School and district hospital

* School lacks resource room for special needs students, it’s multipurpose hall and hostels dilapidated

* Sewer system got broken a long time ago and the kitchen uses firewood energy

* The hospital has an outstanding electricity bill of K60 million and has high vacancy rate at 58%

* It lacks power back up and experiences frequent breakdown of X-ray machine, among other challenges

By Brian Wasili, MANA

President Lazarus Chakwera on Friday morning visited several development projects in Mwanza where he was appraised of hard-bitten challenges being faced at Mwanza Secondary School and the district’s hospital.

The President visited Mwanza to inspect progress of construction of new police houses and to preside over ground breaking ceremony for a 5,000-seater stadium and before that he visited the secondary school and Mwanza District Hospital.

Headteacher for Mwanza Secondary School, Henry Saka candidly told the President that they face a lot of challenges, among others,  absence of resource room for special needs education students, dilapidated multipurpose hall and hostels, broken sewer system and the kitchen uses firewood energy.

“Mwanza is the only boarding secondary school in the district with 336 students and there is need to have most things available,” Saka said.

At Mwanza District Hospital, the President toured pediatrics ward where he donated assorted items in the ward and in his remarks, District Director of Health & Social Services, Dr. Misha Sitande disclosed that the hospital has an outstanding electricity bill of K60 million, high vacancy rate at 58%, lacs power back up and experiences frequent breakdown of X-ray machine, among other challenges.

“The district has only two health centres, namely Thambani and Kunenekude and this affects operations of the hospital as the district also serves people from Mozambique,” Sitande said.

The 10 houses for Mwanza Police — which are now at 73% completion rate — are expected to reduce accommodation challenges of the law enforcers.

At a rally at Mwanza at Community Ground, assured the gathering that his administration will continue to plant development projects in all the districts as one way of transforming the country.

“I am delighted to see good progress on the projects like police staff houses,” he said. “However, I am also disappointed to see Mwanza Secondary School being in a dilapidated state due to negligence of some people who are failing to do some rehabilitation works.

“There is need to change the face of the district by constructing modern infrastructure.”

He, therefore, pledged that government will construct new office buildings for Mwanza District Council so that staff should work in a conducive environment and that a modern market infrastructure and a bus depot will be constructed at Mwanza Boma, among others.

The President also took a swipe at contractors, saying it is high time they started building durable and high quality infrastructure that could withstand bad weather.