PLANS are underway to elevate Tumbatu islet into a fully-fledged district with all essential services, Zanzibar President Hussein Mwinyi announced here on Thursday.
Tumbatu, which is currently a sub-district within Unguja North region's North A District, lacks most of the essential services like water, roads and health services.
Speaking at the launch of Covid-19 response funded new six classrooms at Tumbatu B Primary School in Uvivini Shehia, Dr Mwinyi reaffirmed the government resolve to construct a modern district hospital; storey-building schools; tarmac roads and provide reliable water supply in the sub-district.
"The modern district hospital with all the essential facilities is coming here; we have constructed storey-building schools in other areas; it's now the turn of Tumbatu to have similar schools and tarmac roads before becoming a fully-fledged district," Dr Mwinyi told the cheerful Tumbatu residents at Tumbatu B School.
With 1,069 pupils--506 and 563 boys and girls, respectively--the school had been experiencing pupil congestion, which impedes learning.
Educational and Vocational Training Minister Lela Muhamed Mussa appreciated the International Monetary Fund (IMF) soft loan, saying the new classrooms will ease crowding in class.
President Mwinyi also pledged port construction to ease access to the island whose residents are currently almost disconnected due to transport hitches.
The president later laid the foundation stone for construction of an on-ground and elevated water tank at Gomani, describing the infrastructure as the panacea of water woes in the sub-district.
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Upon completion, the one million-litre tank will serve as a water reservoir to meet water demand in the island, according to Zanzibar Water Authority Director General Dr Salha Mohammed Kassim.
President Mwinyi treasured the project contractor--Simba Developers Limited--whom he said is executing the project on a voluntary basis.
"When we invited tenders for this project, contractors were quoting over 4bn/- due to the difficult working environment but Simba Developers offered to help us for only one billion; we say, thank you," Dr Mwinyi appreciated.
At Jongowe Primary School, the president launched four newly constructed classrooms and handed over fishing and seaweed farming boats to entrepreneurs under interest-free loans.
The president is on a two-week tour of Unguja and Pemba islands to inspect execution of water, education and health projects under the 230bn/- IMF soft loan to mitigate the impact of Covid-19.
He concluded the three-day tour of Unguja North region yesterday and is this morning scheduled to embark on another two-day tour of Unguja South before heading to Pemba on Sunday.
The president has during his inspection tour admired the works of special departments, which have more than halved the construction costs of schools and health facilities. The departments for instance are constructing one classroom for 20m/- far below the contractors' quoted cost of over 50m/-.
