. Police officers’ staff houses being constructed.

By JOWIT SALUSEKI –
A GOOD Government gets closer to its people so that all matters concerning the communities are addressed timely.
In a country as large and sparsely populated as Zambia, citizen participation and effective delivery of services in many areas in the past was a daunting task.
In order to address these challenges, Government embarked on the creation of new districts.
The purpose of creating more districts was in line with decentralisation policy.
The social-economic development and subsequent economic growth of any nation is strongly linked to development in sectors such as health, road network, schools, financial services and other social amenities.
Without economic expansion, it is difficult to have socially inclusive development.
On the supply side, the direct benefits of improved social services such as road networks include lower vehicle operating costs, saving in travel time and efficiency in meeting intended targets in order to foster development.
On the other side, bringing facilities such as a health post as close to the people as possible would enable the residents of that particular area to have access to good health services.
Thus when the ruling Patriotic Front(PF) Government won the 2011 tripartite elections, one of the first things late President Michael Sata did was to create new districts in order to bring developmental projects as close to the people as possible.
The Government’s action to re-align districts was not only well-designed but was also an innovative policy aimed at bringing efficiency and accountability in public service delivery.
Other pointers are that the creation of new districts is a big economic and development incentive which will transform those areas.
Repositioning of regions has thus allowed local people to know who is responsible for local public services and that makes it easy for the people to hold public service workers accountable.
The people living in newly created regions have also taken an opportunity to develop their local areas.
To promote a decentralised and democratic local Government system and facilitate the provision of efficient and effective delivery of quality housing, Shibuyunji District is one of the districts created in 2012 by late President Sata.
Shibuyunji District is therefore receiving a facelift in through various development projects.
Located about 60 kilometres away from Lusaka, Shibuyunji, which has a population of over 70,000 – according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO 2010) – is predominantly a farming region where the peasant farmers engage in crop production, animal husbandry and fish farming, to mention but a few.
This newly created district is awash with infrastructure development which the Government is building from the scratch; chiefly among them is a modern police station, an administrative office block,
accommodation for police officers and a civic centre.
Other infrastructure includes a post office, 20 low-cost houses for civil servants and a complete high school, Mwembezi high school.
But some opposition political parties have climbed ant hill tops to claim that development has not taken off since the district was created.
Of course, the area lacks a filling station, banking services and tarred roads but plans are under way to have these facilities because the feasibility study is still going on.
Nonetheless, residents of Shibuyunji paid tribute to the Government for the many developmental activities taking place in the area.
The residents say never in the history of the existence of Shibuyunji have they witnessed such unprecedented levels of development within a short period of time.
Given Shakolwa said he was impressed that the Government had embarked on the construction of Mwembezi high school, a police station, an administration office block, a post office and a Zesco substation, among other infrastructure.
“The kind of infrastructure which we are witnessing in Shibuyunji under the PF Government has cheered a lot of people in the
communities. To many people, this has shown that the ruling party is able to take development to all parts of the country without segregating,” Mr Shakolwa said.
Mary Katambo was elated that most youths had managed to find jobs due to the construction of various Government office blocks, houses and
other social amenities in the district.
Ms Katambo further said that the electrification of Shibuyunji District has enabled some residents of the area to venture into various businesses, such as poultry farming and restaurants in order to support their families.
Cletus Simoonga was happy with the Government’s early delivery of farming inputs through the Farmers Input Support Programme (FISP) although the farmers themselves started planting late owing to the dry spell some parts of the district experienced in the 2015/16 farming season.
However, Mr Simoonga called on the Government and other stakeholders to construct some deep tanks in this predominantly farming district as well as help in sinking boreholes since some of the communities have challenges to access clean water in the area.
Elizabeth Kafwimbi appealed to the Government to tar the over 45 kilometers stretch of road from the Lusaka-Nampundwe junction to Shibuyunji District in order for people to easily transport goods and services and take development to a whole new level.
The residents also implored service providers in the financial sector to open up banking services in the area since the district currently has no bank.