United Party for National Development (UPND) Itezhi Tezhi Member of Parliament Twaambo Mutinta has called for an urgent intervention from the Road Development Agency (RDA) and the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) in mitigating the impact of the washed away roads and bridges in Itezhi Tezhi constituency.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mr Mutinta wondered how the climate resilient roads and bridges spearheaded by the PF could easily be washed away. He said that the defining characteristic of climate resilient infrastructure is that it is planned and built in a way that anticipates and adapts to changing climatic conditions.
Mr Mutinta said among the roads needing urgent attention include D7 69, the main road connecting Itezhi Tezhi to Lusaka. He said the damaged road has negatively affected the economy of the constituency.
He said for the past one week, the constituency has been cut off from part of southern province and has become an island. He said access to Choma, the provincial headquarters of southern province has become difficult as people have to go via Lusaka, a situation that should not be allowed to continue. He said budgets of many government departments have doubled owing to emergency works on collapsed infrastructure.
“The budgets for many governments have been doubled because of the poor works done on the purported climate resilient roads funded by the African Development Bank (ADB) under the PPR project. The intention of most roads was to withstand the harsh climatic conditions,” he said.
The lawmaker said the failed climate resilient roads and bridges have put a burden on the DMMU who need to urgently move into the constituency and look at the plight of the residents. He expressed sadness that people in his constituency are covering distances of over 1000 km to access the provincial headquarters defeating the whole purpose of taking back Itezhi Tezhi to southern province.
