Mmegi

Gov’t admits ‘poor road conditions’ as fatalities rise

Mompati Tlhankane

Botswana has since 2019 recorded 1,502 road fatalities and now government has come forward to admit that it is dissatisfied with the condition of roads which to some large extent causes road crashes and fatalities.

Responding to a question in Parliament recently, Minister of Transport and Public Works, Eric Molale revealed that since 2019 they have recorded 63,315 road crashes and 1,190 of them were fatal.

Molale pointed out that his ministry’s strategies to achieve road safety in Botswana are multifaceted and include road audits to inform road infrastructure improvement, road development, and road maintenance.

He was responding to a question from Member of Parliament for Ngami, Carter Hikuama who had asked if Molale was satisfied with the state of roads in the North West Region: if not, what he is planning to do in the short, medium, and long term to improve the state of roads in the North West Region which pose a grave danger to people’s lives.

Speaking of danger to people’s lives, for a long time the government has been blaming road accidents on driver attitudes and behaviours but another elephant in the room pointing to the poor condition of roads across the country has often been overlooked. With the rainy season also here, the downpours have also exacerbated the already poor condition of some roads.

Potholes on the roads have become death traps with drivers running into an endless stream of them on the way. In his response, Molale assured Hikuama that in the short term, government plans to continue carrying out all routine maintenance works of roads in the North West region by using a combination of in-house resources and outsourcing to the private sector. “The routine maintenance works include amongst others, dry grading of gravel roads, pothole patching, bush clearing, grass cutting, fence repairs, and maintenance of signage,” he further disclosed.

Molale also said that in the medium term, the government is in the process of clustering roads in a particular location/area/district and outsourcing all periodic and routine maintenance works in those clusters to the private sector or contractors for periods of two to three years.

He indicated that the intention is to carry out these clustered maintenance works by adopting the Output Based Performance Method which has been piloted in the Southern District in the past eight years.

“In the long term, my ministry will reconstruct or construct roads in the North West region.

To this end, my ministry in September 2022 awarded reconstruction projects for the Gumare-Sepopa Road (70km) and Sepopa-Mohembo Road (70km).

Further, roads are planned for reconstruction during the Transitional National Development Plan and National Development Plan 12 periods such as the Nata-Maun Road (310km) and the Maun-Gumare Road,” Molale said.

NEWS

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2022-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://enews.mmegi.bw/article/281547999905014

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