District on a trip for change

By LUKE KAMA
THE Mendi-Munihu district development authority (MDDA) in Southern Highlands has launched a number of projects and made several presentations on Friday to mark the start of a new journey towards a brighter future.
The projects include the upgrade and sealing of roads in Mendi town at a cost of K3 million, perimeter fencing for the Magani police barracks in Mendi and Mendi National Broadcasting Corporation at the cost of K600,000, the extension of Mendi Airport runway for another 160 metres and the upgrade of the Mendi Airport terminal, the introduction of rubbish collection in the town and building of new public amenities within the town area.
Also during the launch of the projects, a 20-foot container of much-needed medical equipment costing K1.7 million purchased by the authority was presented to the Mendi General Hospital along with two new ambulances costing K185,000 each, two tractors costing K150,000 each to the town authority for rubbish collection, 101 Tuffa tanks with a holding capacity of 5000 litres each and announcement of other projects, including school-fee assistance for Mendi Munihu students next year.
Mendi-Munihu MP and Works and Implementation Minister Michael Nali said the K10 million district services improvement programme (DSIP) funds received from the Government every year was a lot of money and if put to good use with development partners, it would make a big difference in electorates throughout the country.
“We got around K5 million so far out of the K10 million and we have spent around K3 million to implement some projects already by targeting basic services first,” Nali said.
He said because it was a challenging time for the country, his district was implementing small and critical projects to address basic and vital needs of the people.
Nali urged the people to take ownership of the projects and embrace the changes that would be happening in the district and province.
Acting Southern Highlands provincial administrator Joseph Cajetan commended Nali’s leadership and said the time was right for Southern Highlands to stand united and move forward.
“Southern Highlands is behind the other provinces and I believe today is the right time for us to stand united as one people of Southern Highlands and develop our
province and move forward,” he said.
“We must change our attitude and our mindset and respect each other and support our leaders to develop and bring changes to our province.”