Williamson Diamonds Ltd (WDL) at Mwadui has set aside Sh156m for development activities in the neighbourhoods of the mining centre in Kishapu District, Shinyanga Region, The Guardian on Sunday has learnt.

Justine Sheka, Kishapu District Council chairman, told journalists visiting the district under the auspices of Tanzania Gender Network Programme (TGNP) recently that the money would be spent on construction of classrooms, water supply and health sector improvement.

Cheka said some 20,000 people, especially women and children in Songwa, Mwadui, Lohumbo and Mondo will benefit from the support, which he said was of its kind since independence in 1961.

Songwa Primary School Head Teacher, Obadia Kitali, admitted that toilet facilities are lacking for both teachers and pupils, following the collapse of an old latrine. A new latrine is in its final stages of construction, including fixing doors.

There is a great shortage of facilities in several learning and teaching infrastructure and environment in all 114 government owned schools as 623 new classrooms have been built since 1998.

The new investors PETRA Diamonds have offered the support, calling on other development partners to give a similar assistance to Kishapu District in health and education sectors.

The Acting Kishapu District Executive Director Engineer Lucas Said told journalists that there is a shortage of 1,137 teachers’ houses, which represents 85 per cent.

Currently, there are only 243 houses, which is about 25 per cent of the district’s needs. For this reason many teachers are unwilling to work in Kishapu’s remote areas.