6 November 2009
ACTING Local Government and Housing Minister, Bradford Machila has directed the Lusaka City Council (LCC) to rehabilitate the dilapidated roads and drainages around the city before the onset of rains.
Speaking in Lusaka on Wednesday when he conducted a tour of some of the roads in industrial area, Mr Machila said lack of routine maintenance by council had led to some roads being in poor state.
Mr Machila said the poor road network was a hindrance to economic development and urged the council to ensure that the industrial area always had good roads.
"We are approaching the rainy season and we need better roads and drainages. It's not good to watch the damaged roads. As LCC, you should carry out routine maintenance to ensure the roads are always in good state," Mr Machila said.
The minister was accompanied by several officials, including his Permanent Secretary Coillard Chibbonta, LCC Town Clerk Timothy Hakuyu and Zambian Breweries Group (ZBG) corporate affairs director Chibamba Kanyama.
Mr Machila said he was also sad to see heavy trucks parking anyhow on roadsides a situation he said was one of the causes of damage and blockage to drainages.
On Bunyantashi road, a queue of trucks belonging to Rainbow Company and some fuel tankers for other companies were found parked on a stretch of drainages on both roadsides.
Mr Machila said LCC should quickly tell the owners of the trucks to stop parking on roadsides because the trucks were also blocking the pathway for pedestrians.
He said he was disappointed that such a situation could not be checked by LCC during its regular maintenance of the roads.
Mr Kanyama said Zambian Breweries company was losing revenue due to bad state of roads, especially on railway crossing where trucks carrying bottles had difficulties to pass.
He called on the Government to take advantage of the private-public partnerships to work closely with the private sector to foster development in the country in areas such as roads rehabilitation.
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