Maputo — About 77 per cent of the approximately 5,000 kilometres of roads in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia are in good condition, according to the Zambezia delegate of the National Roads Administrator (ANE), Francisco Ota.

"We have about 3,563 kilometres of road that are in good condition for use all year round, which means that even during the rainy season one can reach all districts in the province, though in some cases one has to make detours", he told AIM.

According to Ota, these good conditions are the result of efficient maintenance, including of bridges and culverts, across the entire province, particularly in districts which used to have serious problems of access roads.

Ota said that Milange, Mopeia, and Morrumbala are the districts which still have poor quality roads, a situation that becomes worse during the rainy season.

"But, apart from these cases, the road network in Zambezia province is good, and can be used even during the rainy season", said Ota. He stressed that there has been heavy rain in the province over the last few days, but access to the districts of the interior has not been interrupted.

Until the mid-1990s, Zambezia was the province with the most serious problems in terms of access roads, because most of them had been destroyed during the war of destabilization, which ended with the signing of the General Peace Accord, in 1992.

For his part, Zambezia provincial governor Carvalho Muaria said that "after the war, a gigantic effort was made to rehabilitate roads and bridges and, fortunately, we currently have access to all districts".