Africa-Press – Namibia. THE CEO of the Katima Mulilo Town Council, Raphael Liswaniso, says a tender of N$2 million has been awarded to Ashy Trading CC to fix the reoccurring problem of potholes which plagues many of the town’s roads.
Liswaniso says the heavy rains and influx of trucks in the central business district is destroying roads like Hage Geingob and Lifasi, however, he is hopeful that more funds will be made available through the Road Fund Administration (RFA) to upgrade roads.
He says many local business people are unwilling to assist the town council, however, the trucks with heavy loads use roads to deliver goods to the very same businesses.
“The RFA has made available N$3,9 million to us for the maintenance of both the tarred and the gravel roads. We also are not only limited to maintaining, the funds allows us to upgrade our roads,” Liswaniso says.
He reveals that they have engaged the Roads Authority (RA) as per their memorandum of understanding, to provide engineers to assist with designs to raise the roads and storm water drainage systems.
“The previous designers did not consider the low landscape, making it difficult for us to maintain the current drainage system which is underneath. This results in sand filling up and blocking rainwater.
“Hopefully with this new design we will have open storm water drainage, which will be effective for our landscape,” he says.
Liswaniso adds that they are challenged in terms of the maintenance of gravel roads by an old grader that breaks down frequently. Parts for the grader cannot be found locally and it takes time to repair it he says.
“However, we have sourced quotations from locals and got a grader we can use to carry out maintenance work. We will soon start with the maintenance of the gravel roads as well, if we are not interrupted by the rain.”
Liswaniso calls on local motorists living outside of the region to start showing pride in where they come from by registering their vehicle licences in Zambezi, as this will help increase the allocation of funds coming to the region for road maintenance.
“You will see a high influx of vehicles, especially during the festive season, which is putting strain on the roads, so we need them to do the right thing and register for the local number plates.”
He further pleads with local residents to play their part in ensuring local infrastructure is not vandalised, as this diverts funds the town council could utilise for new development projects.
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