By REBECCA MUSHOTA –

GOVERNMENT says it will next year build houses for prison warders in Ndola as a way of improving their working conditions.

Ndola District Commissioner Rebby Chanda said when he officiated at the Ndola Remand Prison annual ball last weekend that Government was in the process of building houses for prison officers.

Mr Chanda said Government was concerned about the welfare of officers in prisons and therefore had started the process of procuring houses for them.

“The process of tendering is near completion and soon contracts would be awarded to the deserving contractors to start constructing houses,” he said.

He also said he was proud of the achievements the Ndola Remand Prison had made.

And Ndola Remand Prison officer-in-charge Kufuna Mwangala said the prison had nine houses against 51 officers.

Mr Mwangala said the prison, therefore, decided from its own efforts, next year, to build one semi-detached flats for officers to address the accommodation challenge.

He said the prison faced a number of other challenges such as lack of modern cooking equipment for inmates’ meals, lack of adequate transport and bad water supply.

Mr Mwangala said he was, however, happy that Government had negotiated with the water utility company on behalf of the prison to improve the water supply.

First Quantum Mining had also complemented supply of fuel to use for transporting prisoners.

Mr Mwangala said the prison had this year built a chicken house and had 1,000 layer birds and had also revamped the fish ponds.

He said next year, he prison intended to increase the number of layers to 2,500.