By OLIVER SAMBOKO
TRADITIONAL leaders in the Gwembe Valley are disappointed with lack of seriousness by the Ministry of Mines over oil and gas exploration in the Chisanga Area.
Speaking on behalf of other chiefs in the area, Chief Sinazongwe said they are disappointed with what he described as lack of seriousness on the part of government to explore the oil in the area.
Recently Gwembe District Council chairperson, Paul Chilala also complained that despite the local authority and the traditional leadership in the area giving ZCCM-IH green light to go ahead with the exploration of oil and gas, nothing has been done so far.
According to a sample collected by the Daily Nation last year, and submitted to the Copperbelt University for analysis, it was found to contain 4.0955 percent oil which experts described as a very good yield. The Gwembe oil was discovered by a group of boys herding cattle near the mountains who alerted the traditional leadership in the area on the oily substance in the Jongolo mountains and river bed. And Chief Sinazongwe said the people are tired of waiting for a report from the government on the discovery and therefore called for the speeding up of the process so that the country can start benefitting from the natural resources.
“The relevant Government ministry through ZCCM-IH is not doing enough to investigate the discovery of oil in the region leaving us wondering why it is like this because we are aware that in other regions, the explorations commenced a long time ago,” he said.
Chief Sinazongwe wondered why it has taken Government so much time to deploy experts to the area even after making assurance that the issue was going to be given priority considering that the country was pending huge amounts on importation of crude oil from the Middle East. He said it’s better for ZCCM-IH to indicate so if they are failing to carry out the complicated exploration works so that Government can engage foreign exploration companies to do the work than delaying the process.
