Donated land ‘rots’ in Zambezi

KATIMA MULILO - The Zambezi region is yet to utilise about 25 000 hectares of land received from traditional authorities about seven years ago.In an interview with Nampa, Zambezi governor Lawrence Sampofu said the multiple pieces of land situated in different areas were donated to be developed into green schemes, but are still lying bare due to lack of government funding.He said for the last seven years they have been asking the government to allocate funding to develop the land but to no avail.“We have written letters, we have made proposals, we have submitted plans, but we are not given money,” Sampofu said. The budget Zambezi gets is not enough to sustain capital and development projects in the region, he said.“If we had enough money, we could have started the projects ourselves, but we are always told there is no money.”The region currently only has one green scheme, which is financially struggling.“As you know this region receives good rain every year, yet we only have one green scheme, Kalimbeza, which is not well funded and it is at a stage where it can’t even afford to pay workers’ salaries,” Sampofu said.INVESTORSHe added that the region has been struggling to attract investors to develop the land.“We want to provide jobs to our people and those projects could do that, so we have been inviting investors to invest in green scheme projects here but so far there is nothing,” he said.Contacted for comment, the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, Calle Schlettwein, said the ministry has met with the governor's office alongside councillors and the traditional authorities.“We have agreed that we need to develop the land as soon as possible. We thank the traditional authorities for providing the land and we will evaluate all of it to see its potential,” he said. - Nampa

Donated land ‘rots’ in Zambezi

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