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Heavy rains worsen roads in Sinazongwe District
Sinazongwe,February 20th, 2014—THE deplorable state of the roads in Sinazongwe District has worsen deteriorated due to heavy rainfall experienced this season says District Commissioner Dodo Sindaza.
Mr. Sindaza says the state of the roads in the District needed immediate attention as most of them were becoming almost impassable while some were completely impassable.
The District Commissioner disclosed in an in an interview with ZANIS in Sinazongwe District yesterday.
He said part of Maamba road had also collapsed and heavily loaded vehicles were unable to cross due to heavy rains.
“Sinazongwe District Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DDMMU) was working on a report to ascertain the extent of damage on the roads and submit to Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) under office of the vice President for immediate response as this was turning out to be a disaster, “he said.
]Mr.Sindaza called on DMMU under Office of the Vice President to come down to the District and carry out an assessment on the roads that were most hit once the report is submitted because some culverts on certain roads had been swept away and bridges collapsed.
He said the situation had resulted into some people being cut off from accessing important needs such as the health centers, market and the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) sheds were inputs under the Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) were stored.
The District Commissioner cited some of the roads such as the Chiyabi road had most of the bridges swept away by heavy downpour making it difficult to reach the other side of the District.
Mr.Sindaza said that Kafwebula Siampondo was another road whose culverts had been swept away and was in a deplorable state making it difficult to reach surrounding areas while namafulu road which leads to the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe could not be accessed completely by road.
He expressed fear that if heavy rainfall continued to be experienced more damage could be seen on the roads.
Mr.Sindaza said he was happy that Government was responding well on the rehabilitation and upgrading of some roads to bituminous standards in the District.
He confirmed that the Sinazongwe Sinazeze road will be upgraded to bituminous standards as part of the bottom road earmarked by Government while other roads to be worked on included the Siabuswi Sinakobo road.
Mr. Sindaza said that 10km of selected urban roads had been earmarked for rehabilitation and upgrading which included the makonkoto road that links Sinazongwe to Maamba and the contractor was already on site.
He disclosed that the contract for Sinakasikili ngoma road and Buleya Malima irrigation had been terminated by the Council because the contractor BoilTech Services Limited failed to deliver by doing only ten percent of work which was at the same time shoddy.
Mr. Sindaza said the District Council had already written to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing requesting for the contract to be advertised again so that a serious contractor could move on site.
He appealed to would be contractors to desist from displaying shoddy works because they would risk their contracts terminated but challenged them to put up good works that would ensure roads stands a test of time.
Mr. Sindaza further appealed to them to also desist from coming with labour from outside the District and called on them to make use of already existing labour within as there were many youths who needed employment.
He said that this was part of Government’s policy to create jobs for the people within areas where projects of this nature would be undertaken.
And Sinazongwe District Council Secretary Embassy Cheembo has welcomed the move by Government to ban the purchase of second hand earth movement equipment especially meant for rehabilitation and maintenance of the road network system.
Mr.Cheembo said in an interview with ZANIS in Sinazongwe yesterday that this would put value for money spent on such heavy duty equipment by Government.
He disclosed that his council intends to purchase a second hand grader but due to the directive by Government to stop buying second hand equipment, the Council decided to plan for the purchase of the new one using Constituency Development Fund (CDF) despite the challenge of having a shortfall to meet the cost as CDF this year was only k 1.4 million.
The Council Secretary said Councillors had since agreed to involve the Ministry of Local Government and Housing by requesting for assistance with additional funds to enable them meet the cost of a brand new grader which was much needed in the District for purposes of maintaining feeder and urban roads.
