February 16 2023

As I write, the rains have reached a stage where the Department of Disaster Management (DoDMA) is warning people in the Lower Shire of eminent flooding. This follows heavy rains that have been evident in  the highland districts of Blantyre and Phalombe.

There have been heavy rains in the districts leading to rivers bursting, roads being cut off and crops being damaged.

In other districts, we have heard of hailstorms damaging crops in Kasungu and Mzimba. Bridges have been washed away elsewhere and some people have lost their lives.

That the roads in the country are in bad shape goes without saying. There is no district that has been spared the massive potholes, no council has been left out on the damage in the road network.

It is a popular sight these days to see young men on the roads carrying plates to get some money as they ‘repair’ the roads. This is not necessarily part of the million job creation that was as empty as a promise as the one about reduced fertiliser prices.

You find several of these young men crashing bricks onto potholes, while others knock on every passing car for a little something. How a crashed brick can help ‘repair’a pothole is baffling in as much as it is a fruitless endeavour. In fact, this only leaves the roads in a worse state for the boys to be back there the following day to get more handouts.

As the rains continue, and the roads continue to turn into killer potholes, one wonders where are local councils in all this? Are there no longer departments in the councils that look into the state of roads?

We are told government needs about K1.57 trillion to finance road projects by 2025 to promote connectivity and economic growth.

This is according to the World Bank Transport Infrastructure Sector Assessment Programme report launched during the week by the Minister of Transport and Public Works Jacob Hara.

Whether that amount will really be used for that purpose is doubtful.

As I write, President Lazarus Chakwera is expected to deliver the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Friday. As usual, there will be a good part in his Lutherian tone to show how much his government is working to make the road network tick.

It is predictable that whatever he will say will not be a departure from the usual talk about developing roads, the same words that were said last year.

Obviously, he will tout the dual carriage way which was designed way before his rule as a major success.

As the House continues to deliberate, we will hear parliamentarians requesting the transport and public works ministry to repair, upgrade or rehabilitate some roads.

It is evident that some roads have been allocated some funds in every budget with little or no works on the ground. Where the money allocated is spent, only God knows.

Daily, councils are collecting revenue, yet little or nothing is put aside for roads. Imagine, city councils demand city rates from residents, yet the road networks in our townships leaves a lot to be desired.

It is even disheartening to note that some of the roads are in a state of disrepair because of corruption. There was a feeder road in Machinjiri, which landed one time mayor John Chikakwiya into jail for embezzlement of the funds for the road. As we speak, if the road were bituminized as the city records show, it could have provided a de tour for another road that has been cut off, and the council says it will take some three months to repair.

That is the effect of corruption and abuse of public funds. You can chew from the public coffers, but know that someone somewhere will die because of lack of medication because of your evil act.

Do I need to question why the fuel levy is not being used properly to repair the roads for good? When the Roads Authority (RA) Fund set up the tollgates at Kalinyeke and Chiingeni, we were told much of the amount collected would be used to repair the roads. Yet, all we heard initially was that the tollgates collected more than enough but nothing on the ground is seen to be happening where repairing the roads is concerned.

We are getting used to government bodies claiming they have collected beyond their targets, yet service delivery remains a headache.

What is most interesting, I dare add, is that those responsible seem to be reactionary on the road situation. When pictures were posted on social media about a bridge that is a death trap in Nkhotakota, we hear police had deployed officers to guard the place against vandalism. What offal!

Another picture was posted about the destruction on the Peter Mutharika Highway and minutes later, excavators were deployed to repair the road. What awful offals!

The post Repairing roads, a headache first appeared on The Nation Online.

The post Repairing roads, a headache appeared first on The Nation Online.