THE decentralisation programme the government has been implementing in the last half-decade is aimed at spurring locally generated development.
It is aimed at dissolving decision-making to district level as a way of cutting down on bureaucracy and remove bottlenecks that hamper development in communities.
While the policy that spawned the programme is a well-crafted document with clear long-term, medium-term and short-term objectives all aimed at improving public service delivery.
Under the National Decentralisation Policy Government has been creating new districts to take services closer to the people.
Vast districts such as Mpika in Muchinga Province have been sliced up to create new ones to make it easier for citizens to access services closer home.
The policy is not aimed at bringing services closer to the people but to also empower local authorities to come up with innovative ideas on how to generate revenue at district level instead of depending on grants from the central government.
This includes wooing investors who can set up businesses and later pay taxes and levies to the councils.
A number of councils have embraced the new system and have come up Kapiri Mposhi is one of them.
It has come up with a new project under which it is to light up 1.5 kilometres of streets at a lot of K400,000 in Tazara Township.
Unveiling the project on Saturday, Minister of Local Government Charles Banda said the street lights would not only promote security but also increase economic activities in the district.
Mr Banda stated street lighting promoted the quality of life by artificially extending light so that economic and social activities could take place till late hours.
He said the project was one of the low-cost interventions aimed at preventing accidents and crime.
Indeed, street lights not only add to the beauty of an area but also improve road safety and make it safer for residents to move about at night without the fear of being attacked.
As Mr Banda said with the installation of street lights on Tazara road, cases of crime and attacks on train users walking into the train station would be reduced.
Thieves have been taking advantage of the darkness to waylay train travellers going to the railway station, robbing them of their personal property and sometimes injuring them.
There are also workers who either report for work or knock off at night, and have to risk their lives and personal effects because of the absence of street lights.
Some of the workers are forced to spend the night at the workplace even when they knock off as early as 21:00 hours for fear of being attacked.
This is barrier to development and deprives citizens of their right to the freedom of movement.
We applaud the spirit of self-support the Kapiri Mposhi District Council has shown.
It may look small, but the fact that the local authority is able to generate resources and apply them towards the improvement of the quality of life in communities is a clear demonstration of its potential to do even bigger things in future.
We join Mr Banda and council chairperson Obby Kabasa in urging the residents of Kapiri Mposhi to support the project by guarding against vandalism.
It would be frustrating to the men and women in the council management, the member of Parliament Stanley Kakubo and the councillor who must have worked hard to make the project a reality if the residents will start stealing components of the street lighting equipment.
The street lights are not meant to benefit the MP, council chairperson, the councillor and management but the residents of the area where they will be installed.
It is therefore the residents who stand to lose should they vandalise or allow criminal elements to vandalise the installations.
We again applaud the council and encourage it to move on from the smaller project to even bigger ones using locally generated resources.
