By Charlie Ligomeka

Machinga, February 25, Mana: Machinga District Council officials recently toured Mchinji District to learn the district's development strategies as Mchinji fared very well on Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA)

Machinga District Council's Director of Planning and Development, Noel Dakamau, other council and ward councilors were part of the delegation that visited the border district.

"We wanted our councilors to appreciate development strategies and to learn from their experiences so that we should apply them on our own development projects," the director added.

Dakamau said Mchinji's performance was impressive as reflected in the LAPA, adding that this was key factor that made Machinga District Council to choose Mchinji as model district to visit.

“Mchinji ranked second in the LAPA last year, and we wanted to learn from their successes. Their good infrastructure development and financial management are areas we wanted to emulate,” he added.

The delegation visited various development projects; including the Mchinji stadium, Mchinji recreational hall, fish ponds, and Kabzala Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) Girls hostel.

The visiting ward councilors said they were impressed with projects and the projects’ positive impact on the community.

Machinga Council, Chairperson, Councilor, Simplex Diwa hailed learning tour, saying, it was necessary thing, adding; “We learnt a lot from Mchinji tour. We have seen Mchinji ’strides in infrastructural development, and we believe we can do the same in Machinga,”.

He observed that Machinga had potential to construct and maintaining fish ponds with Shire River as a reliable source of water,

“We have the resources but we need to make good use of the resources. We need to work together to identify our priorities and implement development projects that shall benefit people in Machinga,

“The visit has shown us that with determination and hard work, we can achieve great things,” the Council Chairperson, added and emphasised importance of collaboration between ward councilors and council secretariat to achieve best results.

Director of Planning and Development for Mchinji District Council, Martin Pindankono said the council coordinates very well with ward councilors and other community level development structures to achieve best results.

“Councilors and the secretariat work in collaboration to drive the district forward. It is better to invest in one or two major projects that will have a lasting impact, rather than spreading our resources too thin,” he said and stressed the need to use funds prudently.

Machinga District Council, Chairperson, Councilor, Dorothy Mussa called on Machinga Council secretariat to collaborate with councilor to achieve meaningful development and encouraged fellow ward councilors to emulate Mchinji strategies.

Mchinji Council also encouraged Machinga Council to explore other revenue-generating initiatives, such as construction of fish dams, stadiums, and border posts for economic growth