Omutumwa has observed a disturbing incident, whereby a road which is perfectly in a good condition is being dug up in order to “rehabilitate” it while there are many other roads across the country which could genuinely be in great need for such action.
As a result Omutumwa sent a query to the Roads Authority asking for clarity on the activities taking place on a section of the Oshakati-Oshikuku main road in the centre of Oshakati Town.
RA’s corporate communications officer Ms Constance Mwilima responded by saying: “The Roads Authority (RA) has over the years received complaints from road users, about potholes/road damages on that section of the road during the rainy season, hence the decision to finding long-term solution to the problem.
“In addition, the RA has also over the years spent a lot of money on pothole patching due to base failures on this section.
“Thus, as experts and in accordance with our mandate, it is the RA’s prerogative to prioritize roads that are in need of urgent rehabilitation and to find long lasting solutions to address the problems vs constructing new ones.
“The road in question is being rehabilitated and not reconstructed.”
Contrary to the response of Ms Mwilima, the road in question is not one of the roads riddled with potholes or suffering from damages during the rainy seasons.
In fact the quality of the “rehabilitated” road surface seems to even be substandard in comparison with the surface which had been removed.
On the question whether it was not supposed to be the responsibility of Oshakati Town Council to maintain its road surfaces, RA responded that: “No, the section being worked on in Oshakati forms part of Main Road 92 (Ongwediva-Oshakati-Outapi-Ruacana), and hence falls within the scope of maintenance work of the Roads Authority.”
A Chinese-owned company by the name of “Chico” has been contracted to do the “rehabilitation” work on this road at a cost of N$ 24.5 million.
IN THE PHOTO: Contractors digging up the road surface on a section of the main road in Oshakati.
