By CHILA NAMAIKO-
GOVERNMENT has embarked on a broad assessment of bridges, culverts and other infrastructure damaged during the previous rainy season to rehabilitate them before onset of next rains.
Deputy Minister in the Office of the Vice-President, Davies Mwango, is on a fact-finding mission in districts in Southern Province to assess infrastructure damaged during last rainy season.
Mr Mwango, who has so far toured Chirundu District in Lusaka Province, Monze and Choma to establish the magnitude of the damage, said Government would provide support for rehabilitations.
He said in Choma at the weekend when he called on Chief Singani that Government through Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) would upgrade damaged infrastructure.
“As Government, we have decided to undertake assessments in all damaged infrastructure like bridges and culverts so that through my office, we can provide immediate support before rains come,” he said.
He said the Rural Roads Unit (RRU) was already upgrading dilapidated feeder roads in rural areas while DMMU was also providing various forms of assistance to the needy areas.
He said President Michael Sata was working hard to ensure national resources were distributed equally in parts of the country to improve the living standards of citizens through developmental projects.
He said Government was committed to ensuring that people particularly those in rural areas had modern infrastructure because of lagging behind developmental projects for many years.
Chief Singani was impressed Government for early distribution of farming inputs in addition to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) buying maize across the country.
Mr Mwango also inspected Choma Secondary School’s kitchen department recently gutted by fire in which six electrical pots, among other equipment, were destroyed.
Following destruction of the kitchen, the school management had turned a car garage into a temporal kitchen while rehabilitation of the gutted kitchen was on-going.
The minister assured the school of Government’s maximum support to ensure completion of the kitchen.
School head teacher Samuel Mudenda said the school had a total of 2,450 pupils out of which 1,500 were boarders. He appealed for assistance to speed up rehabilitation of the gutted kitchen.