ZAMBIA POOR ROAD NETWORK, WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE

Zambia’s biggest hindrances to it’s development has been a poor road network especially in the rural areas where the majority of the poorest of Zambians live.

In the urban areas, Zambia can point to some roads and area having just one decent road and that road would be one that just passes through to link to the next town.

The World Bank says roads are the arteries through which the economy pulses. By linking producers to markets, workers to jobs, students to school and the sick to hospitals, roads are vital to any development agenda. So why is the country having such bad road network.

Taking a look at the damaged sections of the 74km road stretch between Monze and Niko in Namwala. The place has one of the highest concentrations of cattle in the country and the need for the cattle, beef and various meat products to reach the market cannot be over-emphasised.

Zambia Road Development Agency (RDA) has a lot of work to do need in a bid to make Zambia better as the economic value chain of such roads has a bigger impact on the citizens.

The works on the Monze-Niko Road should not be an isolated case but must be a direction that the RDA should take to ensure works on several other feeder roads across the country that are begging for a touch-up get worked on.

SOURCE: Time of Zambia