Dephine Phiri
SHURUGWI: Government has unveiled close to 38 million Zimbabwe dollars for the upgrading and repairing of damaged roads in Midlands province.
The District Development Fund (DDF) has already started rolling out a road maintenance blitz targeting the Province’s rural communities with Shurugwi getting first priority as road habilitation works is already under way in the district.
This comes after the recent persistent rains left a trail of destruction with road infrastructure the most affected.
Midlands DDF coordinator, Joseph Nhliziyana told CommuTalk that his team has already managed to renovate bridges that ad been damaged by the recent downpours besides rehabilitation of major rural roads that has just commenced.
“We are looking at roads that have been extensively damaged by the rains. We are already on the ground to ensure that such issues are addressed as a matter of urgency. We had a problem of a damaged bridge in Gokwe South and I am glad that our team has since rectified the problem.
“We also had a problem of a damaged bridge in Mberengwa’s Phoenix area and we have since repaired it. The works are ongoing and we believe we will cover a good ground since the funds have been availed,” Nhlizivana said.
Having had to handle pressure from locals who lamented of the bad state of roads recently, Shurugwi North legislator Robson Nyathi said government intervention had came at the right time.
“In our minds we thought government will only start to repair such roads when the rainy season is over but alas those in authority had other plans and as such, we are so grateful for the gesture. As people of Shurugwi North, we are grateful to those who are steering the ship,” Nyathi said.
Shurugwi District Development Coordinator Langton Mupeta also said improvement of road networks will improve the livelihood of the rural folk.
“We are glad that government has prioritised rural communities. This will go a long way in improving the lifestyles of the people around here. We have had a very good season in terms of agriculture and our farmers will need to ferry their produce to GMB and this can only happen where there is proper road network system,” Mupeta added.
Only last week, government declared all roads in the country a State of Disaster, prompting the release of funds towards the rehabilitation of infrastructure across the country.
