By Jeff Mbewe
Lusaka Central Member of Parliament [MP] Margaret Mwanakatwe says Government through the Road Development Agency [RDA] is committed to ensuring that roads in communities are given a befitting standard.
Speaking yesteday in Lusaka’s Nyumba Yanga area in her Constituency where she was guest of honor at a ground breaking ceremony for grading of a 0.87 kilometer road funded by the community in the area, Ms Mwanakatwe was delighted to see such a progressive initiative by people whose agenda is to supplement government’s efforts.
A community in Nyumba Yanga area had taken it upon itself to raise money for the grading of a road costing 76,000.00.
A total of K36, 000.00 had been raised by the community and Ms
Mwanakatwe contributed only K10, 000.00 towards the project.
“When a community is committed in the manner that this community has been, who are we not to support them? This is why I particularly like what is happening here and you can see that the RDA equipment is already doing its work. So yes we are cutting the ribbon and ground breaking. In fact, the ground has already been broken and the road has begun,” she said.
The Lusaka Central MP also disclosed that Government through RDA will contribute the shortfall of K30, 000.00 towards the project.
“I am happy to say that, having raised K36 thousand as a community, today am giving you my pledge of K10, 000. I am also happy to say that having raised more than 50% of the cost for the project, RDA have promised to pay for the rest. And am also happy to say that this road will be finished in 10 days,” she said.
Meanwhile, the community Chairperson a Mr Mamanya said, together with all members of the community, they decided to be proactive and supplement Government’s efforts in their own ways instead of folding arms.
“We as a community have decided to be deliberate, instead of waiting for government to come on board. We decided to do something for ourselves. This is the major thing to our developmental project. We intend to start with this road and with support from our cooperating partners, we hope that we can have a tarmac in the near future,” he said.
And Mr Mamanya also said that his community would embark on planting trees as well as put up street lights in the area.
He thanked Ms Mwanakatwe for contributing towards the project.
“We are so glad that part of this contribution, Honorable [Mwanakatwe] came in and did not only pledge but contributed to make this a success. We’re hoping that if we can start this even on a personal level, we can then lift it to a community level, and even at the national level. By doing so we are contributing towards making a better country.”
