• THE old mortuary in Mpongwe that has catered for the district since 1978.
Picture by JAMES KUNDA
By JAMES KUNDA –
THE residents of Mpongwe District can now sigh with relief because construction of a new mortuary has started.
The new mortuary, which is scheduled to be completed in July this year, will be in addition to the existing structure that has catered for the district since 1978, and only has space for four bodies.
Mpongwe District Council has invested K118, 700 from the 2014 Constituency Development Fund in putting up the new structure that will have capacity for eight bodies.
The new mortuary is being erected by a Zambian contactor, Nismart Contractors, and is situated at Mpongwe Mission Hospital.
The current mortuary services Machiya, Malembeka and Shimukunami chiefdoms in Mpongwe.
Mpongwe District Planning Officer Widson Nyirenda said the project, which commenced in May this year, would be completed by the end of July.
“The new mortuary will be equipped with modern refrigeration facilities unlike the old one which only has basic cooling infrastructure,” he said.
Mr Nyirenda said the council would buy a complete set of cooling infrastructure to fully operationalise the building.
He appealed to Government to upgrade the road leading to the new mortuary to bituminous standard to ease the movement of people accessing the facility.
The mortuary will also need additional staff to be recruited as there is currently only one attendant supervising all the services.
