Ndola
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Ndola is the second-largest city in Zambia, with a population of 374,757 (2000 census). It is the industrial, commercial, administrative and distribution hub of the Copperbelt, Zambia's copper-mining region, and capital of Copperbelt Province. It lies just 10 km from the border with DR Congo.[1]
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[edit] History
Ndola was founded in 1904, just six months after Livingstone, making it the second oldest colonial-era town of Zambia. It was started as a boma and trading post, which laid its foundations as an administrative and trading centre today.
The Rhodesian Railway main line reached the town in 1907, providing passenger services as far south as Bulawayo, with connections to Capetown. The line was extended into DR Congo and from there eventually linked to the Benguela Railway to the Atlantic port of Lobito Bay (which used to take some of Zambia's copper exports but is currently closed). The Ndola railhead was responsible for the town becoming the country's centre of distribution. Before the road network was built up in the 1930s, a track from Ndola to Kapalala on the Luapula River, and boat transport from there to the Chambeshi River was the principal trade route for the Northern Province, which consequently formed part of Ndola's hinterland.
See Copperbelt Province for the history of the copper-mining industry.
[edit] Industry in Ndola
The largest industrial centre of Zambia has been decimated over the past decade and scores of closed factories and plants can be seen in the town. A number of former industries such as clothing and vehicle assembly have gone completely.[2]
There are no mines in Ndola itself but the Bwana Mkubwa open-cast mine is only 10 km south-east of the city centre. Copper and precious metals used to be brought from elsewhere in the Copperbelt for processing at the Ndola Copper Refinery and Precious Metals Refinery. Copper exports provide 70–80% of Zambia's export earnings, making the city very important to the country's economy.[1]
The Indeni Oil Refinery in Ndola supplies the whole country, and was repaired in 2001 after being severely damaged by fire in 1999.
Ndola is home to one of the country's national newspapers, The Times of Zambia.
[edit] Transport
Ndola is on the Zambia Railways line with passenger and freight services running between Kitwe and Livingstone via Kabwe and Lusaka. Freight branch lines run to other Copperbelt towns and from Ndola to Lubumbashi in DR Congo via Sakania.[3]
A freeway links Ndola to Kitwe, the Copperbelt's second city, and other tarred highways link to Mufulira and Lusaka.[3]
Ndola Airport has scheduled domestic services to Lusaka and an international service to Johannesburg.
The oil pipeline from Dar es Salaam terminates at the Indeni Oil Refinery in the town.
These factors make Ndola the distribution centre of the Copperbelt and northern Zambia.
[edit] Features of Ndola
[edit] National Monuments
- The Slave Tree or Mukuyu Slave Tree around which Arab slave traders held slave markets in the nineteenth century (a mukuyu tree is kind of fig tree).[1]
- Dag Hammarskjöld Memorial ten kilometres along the Ndola/Kitwe road commemorates the site where the then United Nations Secretary-General died in a plane crash on 18th September 1961 during the Congo Crisis.[1]
- Lake Chilengwa 14 km E of Ndola at 12°58' S 28°45' E, was formed by the collapse of rock into an underlying limestone cavern, and has local cultural significance.[1]
[edit] Other features
- Northrise University, a private university.
- NORTEC, the Northern Technical College.
- The Copperbelt Museum, with a collections of gems and minerals of the Copperbelt.[1]
- Small reservoirs formed by dams on the Kafubu and Itawa streams flowing through the south-east of the city are used for boating and recreation.[1]
Note: the thermal power station which dominates the skyline near the railway station and which was built to power the mines and refineries ceased operation in the 1960s when the Kariba Dam power station came on line.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Camerapix: "Spectrum Guide to Zambia." Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.
- ^ BBC World Service Website: "The last shirt maker in Ndola". David Lyon, 22 May 2004. Accessed 18 March 2007.
- ^ a b Terracarta/International Travel Maps, Vancouver Canada: "Zambia, 2nd edition", 2000
http://www.times.co.zm/index.php
