AfricaPress-Tanzania: MEMBERS of the House of Representatives yesterday decried poor maintenance of road infrastructures, describing the laxity as wastage of hard earned taxpayers’ money.
Debating the Infrastructure, Communication and Transport Ministry’s budget for 2020/2021 fiscal year, they argued that although the country was heavily investing on construction of roads, it had seemingly failed to maintain them.
Dimani Representative Dr Mwinyihaji Makame Mwadini charged that many roads in the Indian Ocean’s semi-autonomous archipelago wore out within short periods after their commissioning due to poor drainage systems.
“Conservation of our roads remains a serious problem; we spend a lot of money constructing them but they wear out easily during rainy seasons due to poor drainage systems,” he said.
The backbencher further decried the parking crisis, especially within the city’s central business in districts, advising government agencies to collectively resolve the predicament.
Dr Makame accused some individuals in the city of hoarding parking lots as their personal property.
Konde Legislator Omar Seif Abeid also raised concern over unsatisfactory maintenance of the expensively constructed roads, citing overloading as another serious problem in Zanzibar.
“We have roads whose capacity limit is 10 tonnes but vehicles of up to 40 tonnes are allowed to pass on them…this is destruction of public properties,” fumed the lawmaker, asking the government to procure weigh bridges for the safety of the country’s roads.
Other members who decried non-durable roads in the isles include Mtopepo and Chwaka Representatives Dr Makame Ali Ussi and Issa Haji Ussi, respectively.
After a heated and sometimes emotional debates, the House approved the 190,975,000,000/- budget, with 13,565,000,000/- and 177,410,000,000bn/- allocated to recurrent and development expenditures, respectively.
