Chronicle Editor
THE road networks in most urban areas are in a very bad state and the onset of the rains has worsened the situation.
It seems most councils have stopped road maintenance and are blaming this on dwindling revenue inflows as most ratepayers are defaulting on paying their bills.
The roads in most cities and towns are beyond repair and as such need to be reconstructed. This means a lot of money is required to make these roads navigable again.
Many councils are unfortunately failing to meet their core financial obligations such as paying salaries and service providers and as such cannot raise money for rehabilitation of roads.
It is against this background that we want to call on the private sector to assist the councils to rebuild the roads.
Driving along some of the towns’ roads has become a nightmare because of the potholes that are not only damaging vehicles but are also causing accidents as some of them can only be best described as gullies.
The obtaining situation calls for an engagement between councils and companies in their areas of jurisdiction whose vehicles are being damaged by the potholed roads.
Some years back Bulawayo City Council mooted the idea of engaging the private sector as well as residents in the programme to rehabilitate its roads. The council proposed “Adopt a Road’ policy but we do not know what happened to this innovative idea because the city’s roads are in a deplorable state just like in other cities and towns. Was this idea not embraced by local companies and residents?
Under the proposed policy, a company or an individual was supposed to volunteer to adopt a given stretch of a road whose maintenance the company or individual could sponsor.
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) should also assist councils by providing money for road maintenance given that it is collecting the bulk of the levies paid by motorists whose cars are being damaged by potholes.
Online Reporter