National News

Upgraded Area 24 Road substandard—residents

 

Area 24 residents in Lilongwe have described the township’s upgraded road as substandard following potholes and ragged shoulders that have developed less than a year after its rehabilitation.

The residents also wonder why the upgrading of the road ended at Area 24 Trading Centre and not at ZBS as earlier indicated.

Workers putting tar on the road

One of the residents, Sandram Dausi, on Friday said they felt cheated because they expected a road of high standard.

“We are thankful to government that through the city council our road was among those considered for upgrading, but we are not happy with the quality of work that the contractor has [done],” he lamented.

But Plem Construction Company site agent Burnet Rodgers Ngoma said there are no slurry machines in Malawi. Instead, contractors rely on manual labour when construction works reach that stage. 

“Slurry seal is usually done manually using what we call squiggles,” he explained, adding: “The upgrading of Area 24 Road was highly affected by the rainy season. We did not complete it as there is one more layer remaining which we will do by next week.”

Lilongwe City Council spokesperson Tamara Chafunya admitted that the Area 24 Road was supposed to reach as far as ZBS, covering a distance of 2.69 kilometres.

She said funds allocated to the project were not disbursed in full.

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One Comment

  1. It is remarkably sounds very sad to hear, see and touch what the government is delivering to its beloved citizens. This country has historically lost its grip ladders to heights of sound development instead its political leaders are very busy moulding winning strategies and ways of squeezing resources from govt coffers into their pockets at the expense of democracy. Our country in the sadc region has its citizens heavily taxed e. g a if someone gets a monthly gross salary of 300, 000 he contributes about 100, 000/month in form of tax towards development. Not only this but also 12millon yearly cdf for specified constituencies for sound development. Other contributions include ldf. Instead of giving us what we want the too many over recycled MPs ~200 for this very small country overuse our taxes on allowances and other costs. alas the same MPs they do not utilize the CDFs on development needs of their constituency and the accountability of this money is questionable. Therefore how can our constituencies receive quality development? It seems these MPs go to Parliament very poor but come 5years they all come out millionaires!? Government concentration and achievements are more of paper work because whatever the situation on the ground does not reflect the budget meant for quality and sound development told to the international community to change the lives of poor Malawians. Poverty of Malawians has been turned politicians’ machinery of accumulating wealth and riches in their pockets without actually changing the lives of those living in poverty. E.g. thousands of lives in the lower shire valley were displaced by floods in 2015. The government relocated the affected citizens to the Hilly areas without taking into account their needs- no water supply no health facilities no shelter until now. Is that what you call quality development to these poor people? Budgets on paper are amazing! What politicians are doing to this country …Can be told by villagers themselves although they do not come into contact with helpers!!!

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