MBABANE – The road network progress.
While the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is faced with a mammoth task of rehabilitating many damaged roads countrywide that have caused public outcry and criticism, government, on the other hand, has invested over E290 million in the 2020/2021 financial year to improve the road network in the country.
Even though COVID-19 lockdowns grounded several projects that could have helped in the maintenance and rehabilitation of many roads, there has been a significant achievement in some of the programmes that were targeting to improve road networking in the Kingdom of Eswatini. It has been gathered that the recorded improvements include the construction of footbridges, low-level crossings and construction of roads. All these happened in the 2020/2021 financial year.
According to a report released by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, a total of E293 829 101.88 has been invested in 66 projects, some of which are still ongoing, that will benefit at least 37 000 people upon completion. These projects are managed by Microprojects Programme (MPP) under the transport and communication sector.
MPP is a semi-autonomous unit under the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. Through MPP, Strategic goals for the country as enshrined in the National Development Strategy and as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are implemented across the country.
In fact, this unit is a vehicle for government of Eswatini to bring development to grassroots level mainly for improving the livelihoods of the people of Eswatini.
“Implementation of projects has been obstructed by the COVID 19 pandemic which derailed seamless procurement of construction material. Moreover, politically motivated riots have impacted negatively on the execution of the projects. At any rate, the work in on tract since commitments made are significantly high,” stated the report.
This publication has observed that some communities are over the moon as they now enjoy roads tarred using probase programmes. Such communities include Siphocosini/Sigangeni, Ncesi and Ntfonjeni to name a few.
