adminTawanda Mangoma Chiredzi Correspondent
Chiredzi Rural District Council needs about $300,000 to rehabilitate the heavily damaged 662 kilometre road network falling under its jurisdiction.Engineer Blessing Mureverwi said the local authority failed to undertake its routine road maintenance for the past six years due to economic hardships. This has left the road network in a sorry state.
“Chiredzi Rural District Council has been failing to repair its 662 km officially classified roads for the past six years. However with the rains, erosion and continuous usage of the unrepaired road it ended up damaged seriously,” said Eng Mureverwi.
He said council would need $450 on average to repair every kilometre, but in certain circumstances more money is needed.
“Our roads no longer need the use of a grader in general. They have reached a state at which all gravel was washed away and now require some gravelling. On average we would require $450 to repair one kilometre but it can go up to $600 depending on the terrain,” said Eng Mureverwi.
He however said they have since started reshaping some sections of the roads, but the newly acquired Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) grader is failing to do the work as envisaged.
“We have started reshaping some of our roads which still have some gravel. When we received a grader from Zinara we intensively started the project. We also managed to repair our old caterpillar and it’s now working but the major setback now is the new grader is not fit for some of the heavy tasks which we expect it to undertake.
“We are therefore forced to reserve it for lighter duties whilst our old caterpillar does all the donkey work. This is slowing the rate at which we wanted our roads repaired because the old grader has a lot of breakdowns whilst it’s the utility tool,” said Eng Mureverwi.
He added that new resettlement areas now fall under their jurisdiction and this means that private roads which were used by former white commercial farmers are in council’s hands.
Public transporters who ply rural routes in Chiredzi however said the use of a grader is not the solution especially to roads that have been damaged for years.
“These roads have been destroyed by the rains for years as no one was repairing them. It’s useless to use a grader alone and think you are doing a good job. What is needed is a complete overhaul just like what they used to do back then,” said Machipisa Chiwara, a bus owner from Chiredzi.
Some commuter omnibus drivers said the roads are no longer fit for use but they have no option as they have an obligation to provide transport services.
“Rural roads are in a bad shape. It’s only one day when you will hear about a very serious accident because of these bad roads. We can’t abandon our customers. They rely on us for transport but our operation costs are bubbling because of the damages to the vehicle that happen with every trip. Government must help us by repairing these roads,” said an unidentified kombi driver.
Online Reporter