Manga Bridge which connects Chama South in Muchinga Province to the rest of the country has collapsed due to heavy rains.
Chama South Member of Parliament Davison Mungandu says the bridge collapsed yesterday in the morning.
Mr. Mungandu is appealing to government to visit the site, assess the situation and put in mitigation measures.
He further says there is need for an ambulance that can be used in case of emergencies.
Mr. Mungandu further says Chama South has had a lot of floods and two lives have been lost so far.
The Chama lawmaker has also thanked government for providing one hundred tons of relief maize to the district through the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit.
He is however appealing for more relief food and seed for people to replant because some fields have been washed away by the heavy rains.
How is a collapse of bridge related to food aid? The collapse of the bridge has suddenly made people vulnerable to hunger to require maize aid?
Was this one made in China, tatala tala.
@ Blessed Soul, I think the food aid is related to the floods and not the bridge. The law maker foresees hunger if action is not taken NOW!
Lungu’s kickback tenderprenuers bridges coallpsing left and right.
Is it chink built?
That’s Chinese built infrastructure for you, built via short cuts and with cheap material,
You’re talking about China of the 80s The country’s technology and engineering has improved in leaps and bounds. The EU countries now have plenty of their factories in China
ECL was right about EAZ.
Firstly EAZ, structural and civil engineers should correct the media, the public etc on using proper terminologies. This is not a bridge, it’s a culvert just like the one that got washed away some days ago in Lundazi.
EIZ not EAZ, just that mambovu bovu is in my head.
Lesa nimalyotola. …you thought you were clever over cheap roads.,,..
That is due to poor expensive Chinese road building.
Hopefully, there will be a serious review by qualified civil engineers to arrest the problem.
cheap things end up being expensive,no life was lost..thanks .
Can we have all our bridges inspected before lives are lost! We can’t have bridges collapsing one after the other!
We also cannot put the blame on EIZ which our politicians don’t respect but instead choose to engage foreigners to build everything at inflated prices! When are we going to begin to believe in ourselves?
The river crossing on the Chipata to Lundazi Road over the Msuzi River near Lundazi was a corrugated metal culvert structure built over forty years ago. A design flood is the worst flood that can be expected in a given period such as a 10 year period, 100 year period, 1000 year period or a 10,000 year period. The longer the design flood period is, the more expensive and reliable the culvert is. The corrugated metal culvert is placed across the river crossing and soil is placed above it up to the road level. The culvert must be able to pass the flood or if it overtops the culvert the soil above it will be washed away. The washing away of the culvert means that an inadequate or wrong design flood was used.
What is required, therefore, is not an inspection of culverts but a review of the design floods used for the culverts. Bridges are usually constructed of concrete or steel or both and can usually withstand overtopping, The design flood for the Itezhitezhi is a 10,000 year flood.
Tell him the kaloba party has bought a jet for the nomad to use when he goes for his dancing trips .
We shloud just join Malawi kwenw
At least some people have time for joy. Any good about Zambia makes them miserable because chances for theire leader ruling Zambia diminish with each good news that hits
I HEARD WITH MY OWN EARS ….ITS ZAMBIAN ENGINEERS……KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
Culverts get eroded when debris such as leaves, twigs, branches and plastic bottles block the passage creating a dam which the backfill cannot hold. Even Kariba would collapse if the sluice gates were to fail.
All this littering and the little interest by communities to clean their dirt and the propensity for littering is what has caused most of the bridges to collapse. RDA should give communities around the bridges and culverts cleaning contracts. A similar thing like ZESCO does for pylons. The cash will empower many communities rather than the current approach of giving maintenance contracts to Lusaka based companies or such who are awol most of the time.
No ba mbeba na kolwe the Kariba Dam is likely to withstand an overtopping because it is a concrete dam. The better example is the Itezhitezhi Dam. The dam cannot withstand an overtopping because it is made of earth and rocks which can easily be washed away. There is an emergency spillway in case the main spillway fails to handle the flood waters. Yes clogging of culverts but in most cases it is the wrong calculation of the design flood.