By JOWIT SALUSEKI –

LOCATED about 200 kilometres from Lusaka and 100 kilometres from the Provincial capital of Southern Province Choma, is Monze District.
Monze District comprises three constituencies namely; Bwengwa, Moomba and Monze Central.
The district is made up of six Chiefdoms such as Chief Choongo, Chief Hamusonde, Chief Monze, Chief Mwanza, Chief Kufukwenu and Chief Choona.
There are 22 wards in the entire Monze District.
The terrain in the district is good though in certain areas it’s difficult to reach some places due to the poor prevailing landscape.
Added to that, in the Eastern part of Monze the people experience floods from time to time due to the scenery.
Social economic activities
Agriculture is the main economic venture for the inhabitants with over 60,000 cattle being kept by the farmers.
Vegetable growing is on the increase in the area such that most people are engaging in the production of various crops chiefly among them are  cabbages, rape , tomatoes , onions and egg plants growing.
Developmental projects
A lot of developmental projects are taking place in almost all sectors of the economy in Monze District.
The district boasts of 15 deep tanks 14 of which have been rehabilitated while 60 percent are in operational hence the Government has ensured that wherever there is a deep tank there have also put up a water tank.
All the cattle in Monze District have been vaccinated against Foot and Mouth disease commonly referred to as Denkete by the locals.
Camp houses for Extension Officers have been rehabilitated in order to motivate the civil servants working under the Ministry of Agriculture in this vast district.
On township roads , the Ministry of Local Government  has worked on a stretch of 15 kilometres of urban roads thereby giving a facelift to the Central Business District(CBD).
The Monze –Nikko road which covers a distant of 76 kilometres is currently being worked on, while phase II for  the construction of  Monze Civic Centre is on lintel level while the ablution blocks at the bus station is under construction.
The Ministry of Health in partnership with an international organisation called Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI) has built a state of the art laboratory centre to ease the training of students at Monze Mission Hospital Nursing School.
A new 104 bed capacity hostel and a modern dining hall are also being constructed some five kilometres away from the CBD on a virgin land in Fairview area of Monze.
The Government through the Ministry of Education has upgraded two schools namely Keemba and Manungu primary to secondary schools.
Along Monze’s Chivuna road , the State has built a new boarding school at Kaumba secondary school whose works are at 70 percent.
The works currently going on in the district have put a smile on the residents of the transit town of Monze.
Perry Haabasimbi a resident of Monze says he was delighted with the infrastructure that is taking shape in his area.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Mary Moonga who said Kaumba Secondary school which is under construction when completed will lessen the distant covered by the pupils to attend classes at nearby learning centres.
Under the forest department, the Government is working with a Swedish Non Governmental Organisation called SNV in sensitising the local community against the indiscriminatingly cutting down of trees for charcoal.
In this regard, 1000 farmers have been trained on different methods of bee keeping in order to sustain their livelihoods through harvesting honey.
The Government has also constructed a new Monze open Air Prison which is just adjacent to the old one.
Private sector projects
In order to foster development in Monze, the private sector has also come on board in order to supplement the Government on various projects that are awash the district.
Monze School of Education which first opened its door to students in 2003 is among some of the private sectors that is complementing the State on development projects.
The privately owned college has 23 classrooms, 30 lectures and boasts of churning out over 1000 students since its inception 12 years ago.
Monze College of Education Board Chairman Bwaanga Shanangoma says his institution is truly supplementing the State because the institute is earmarked to have an increase in graduates who are expected to number 300 during this year’s graduation.
‘’ Ever since we started the college in 2003, we have never borrowed any money from the banks in order to build infrastructure at the institution. We use the same money which students pay as tuition fee’’ explains Mr Shanangoma.
The college has also built a guest house to cater for the increase in the number of students seeking for enrolment at Monze College of Education.
Monze District Administrative Officer (DAO) Bbalo Goretti says she is impressed with the various developmental projects currently taking place in the district.
Ms Goretti said with various projects going on in Monze , the district will no longer be the same again.