Salima District Council on Saturday, launched a 195 million kwacha project under World Bank’s Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) funds, a development that will see communities from Chagunda village in the area of Senior Chief Kambwiri and surrounding areas have access to a police unit.
The police unit is expected to be completed in 90 days and will include construction of two houses for police officers who will be deployed at the police unit.
Speaking during the ground breaking ceremony marking commencement of construction in Senior Chief Kambwiri’s area, Member of Parliament for Salima South East Mike Mwawa said his area has never had a police unit a thing which was fueling crime in the area.
Mwawa said people were covering a distance of close to 20 kilometers to access a police unit, which made it difficult for some people to even report crime.
Station Officer for Salima Police Station Senior Superintendent Robert Ngala said they are obliged to protect people of Salima and assist in bringing justice, therefore the police unit will assist in bringing justice to the area.
He therefore advised people of the area to take ownership of the development because the facility will not belong to the Malawi Police Service but to the people of Chagunda.
“I am calling upon people of this area to work hand in hand with the contractor so that the construction work is top notch, patriotism should be exercised during this work,” he said.
Salima District Commissioner Grace Chirwa Kanyimbiri said construction of a police unit at Chagunda has been an outstanding issue for so long, therefore this is an opportune time to accord people of Chagunda with the development.
She therefore advised the constructor to employ people from the area to assist with the ground labour, by doing so it will develop the area economically.
Salima District Council was awarded 471 million Kwacha in the 2022/2023 GESD Performance Based Grants therefore the police unit is one of the projects to be constructed using the funds.
National Local Government Finance Committee/NLGFC
Ministry of Local Government-Malawi
Malawi Police Service