Friday, March 29, 2024

Mongu -Kalabo being vandalized before it is even commissioned-RDA

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The Completed Mongu-Kalabo Road
The Completed Mongu-Kalabo Road

The Road Development Agency (RDA) has appealed to the people of Western Province to stop vandalizing the newly constructed Mongu -Kalabo road.

RDA Spokesperson Loyce Saili said it is saddening to note that some residents in Mongu and Kalabo in particular have already started removing some components of the road before it is even commissioned. in the next two months.

Ms Saili disclosed the sad development when she featured on a Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) programme last night monitored by ZANIS.

She urged people in the area to be reasonable and desist from vandalising the road infrastructure which has been built at a huge cost.

And the agency has warned motorists to stop over speeding on the newly constructed road in order to avoid traffic accidents.

Ms Saili explained that fatal road accidents have already started being recorded on the new road and the development has saddened cooperating partners and stakeholders.

She commended the road constructor Avic International for putting up a good road that will bring socio-economic benefits to the province and the country.

29 COMMENTS

  1. No appreciation of something good. They forget how they have suffered crossing the Zambezi using canoes or how long they travelled to reach their points of destination. Sad development.

    • This is what happens when you import everything and not study your location and people in the area…your simply pay a foreign contractor import everything from China.You think people will eat the road.

  2. Maybe a million dollar road has never been a priority to them. Did anyone bother to find out how they define development? An expensive road may not be how they define it. If I wanted to be voted back into office on the basis of the roads that I have constructed, and my campaign tool is being vandalised, I would be “blood in my urine” worried if not “horror movie” scared.

    • You need to go and read a book. That nonsense you just spewed is getting me upset. ” Build roads and development follows.” that is a wise Chinese saying.

  3. Very sad and they expect the government to work on that road again in the near future! They want to be perpetual sufferers!

  4. How can somebody vandalise a road? is it road signs or the actual tar? And why does it need to be commissioned?

    • @we are all in Govt to eat, those bridge barries are metal and out of that metal they produce vipolopolo for muzzleloaders used for poaching, I hope this helps.

  5. For God’s sake let’s protect public property. Why are we famous for doing wrong things? More than fifty-one years after independence we still can’t handle litter, there is vandalism of property, can’t look after toilets, no clean and adequate water, we have diseases that could be prevented, road accidents even on good roads, very few of our leaders with grade 12 certificates, poverty at it’s worst, etc.. etc.. God help us.

  6. OK, you could have at least mentioned what kind of vandalism is actually taking place, rather than giving an open-ended generic allegations with no evidence to show.

    Also it just shows that so called ‘development’ isn’t an isolated and ‘stand-alone’… rather you need to look at the ‘big picture; examine all components and their inter-relationships. There should have been community sensitisation and even consultations. Some people may not even appreciate the existing of this road because they believe it won’t help them in anyway – with no money, no car, no jobs, no products to take to Mongu, they would never appreciate and look at the indirect benefits. They have been villagers and cut off from the rest of the country for too long.

    I’m not even sure how this road has or will…

    • @Maverick your input is good but some of the demands you people are making don’t make economic sense. A wider four lane road without traffic? Noone does such a thing. The needs dictate what you construct. You cut your cloth according to your means. Its like constructing a skyscraper in Katete. It would be a waste of resources because Katete residents have plenty of space and dont need a skyscraper.

  7. Continued….
    I’m not even sure how this road has or will impact on their fishing activities and canoe transportation. Did it cut off any flow of water; did it displace the local people? Etc. BIG! PICTURE!

    Finally they should have made it a bit wider, at least 4 lanes (2 in each direction) even just the bridge section of the road. The money was there.

    Having said that there is no excuse whatsoever to vandalise the road… if he allegations are true, it is really shameful. It comes down to the issues I have highlighted above.

    • Maverick your input is good but some of the demands you people are making dont make economic sense. A wider four lane road without traffic? Noone does such a thing. The needs dictate what you construct. You cut your cloth according to your means. Its like constructing a skyscraper in Katete. It would be a waste of resources ecause Katete residents have plenty of space.

    • @Maverick your input is good but some of the demands you people are making don’t make economic sense. A wider four lane road in an area with low traffic? Noone does such a thing. The needs dictate what you construct. You cut your cloth according to your means. Its like constructing a skyscraper in Katete. It would be a waste of resources ecause Katete residents have plenty of space.

  8. This vandalism happpens when local people see raw materials in the components of the road. For instance around Serenje along the Great North Road the metals on the road sides have all been removed/vandalised. Sheets on which road signs are printed along Siavonga road have been removed. RDA should try perforating the sheets or use materials which may not be of value as raw materials for various tools in villages. Merely appealing to them will not solve the problem. A combination can help.

  9. This is sad but a result of low educational levels in our country. How can someone question the role of road development in national or regional development? These people appreciated the colonial government when it built roads and instructed them to obey rules. When these things are built at their own expense, they have no clue what the implications of damaging them are. They remove things to sell to Chinese scrap metal dealers and then wonder why their Kwacha is losing its strength. Educate our people through campaigns and elevation of standards in curriculum development. We have a long way to go as a nation, when you see MPs unable to understand the simple rules of democracy and the judiciary is run by ill-educated lawyers.

    • Am sorry to tell you that UPND, even PF have a lot of inferiority complex individuals. Go and read the ignorant comments supporting John Kerry for all the wrong reasons on that article above this one. Protect our infrastructure at all costs.

    • Vandalism has nothing to do with the level of education. It could be inbred or perhaps something to do with upbringing. The so-called educated in Colleges and Universities are known to vandalize institutional property which is meant for their own use.

  10. Poverty is what is causing these people to start destroying the bridge. Chishimba kambwili the scrap metal dealers knows this very well. These poor people are being paid peanuts just to go and remove the metal by the greedy PF scrap metal dealers. Who can blame them?

  11. Again this is political correctness I’ve always observed; is this alleged vandalism not UPND (Politically) motivated? They’ve always condemned the construction of that road – like saying “this road is too good for Barotseland”. Supposing that Road was in Luapula? Everyone in UPND would have saying “Look at these Bembas!” By the way, this Road was MMD project, in case you want to link it to ECL’s campaign. Let us hear UPND condemn this vandalism. Did you see how UPND though Mweetwa have taken violence to National Assembly? UPND knows no other language than violence and destruction. People should start to open their minds and forget voting for a Tonga supremacist clique
    in the name of UPND. Period

  12. very infortunate indeed and unacceptable, i say station law enforcement officers there to enforce the law on vandalism on any persons who cant appreciate such significant and break through development and are behaving like they are from the stone age!!

    • Very right. Highways patrols are a very necessary need along this priceless highway. It is unfortunate that some Zambians do not appreciate beauty. It is said you can take a man out of the bush, but you can’t take the bush out of him. This road is taking some people out of the bush, but they would rather the bush lives on in their heads. Change management can be an uphill battle indeed!

    • Stop! Serenge is not in the beautiful western province and they vandalized road infrastructure there as well. It is low education of the peoples of these areas. So let us educate our people and our MPs need grade 12 certification.

  13. Is it Bembas visiting Western province who vandalizing the road infrastructures? Sad development indeed. Looking at the pictures of the road/bridge, its very clear that it has added to the beauty of the Batrosi plains.

  14. Lolest….. okay ni HH. Ati fyachi china tafyakosa! Ears on the ground! At govt should guard the road! Yaba, cage those enermies of development for life kaili ni sabotage.

  15. It may not be vandalism as per say, but poor cheap materials from our Chines brothers. Tell us what have been destroyed

  16. It is the metal road signs that are usually vandalized to make hoes and axes out of them. Why they cannot plastic signs or drill holes in them I cannot understand because this type of vandalism is widespread in Zambia.

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