KATIMA MULILO – The Katima Mulilo town council, with assistance from the Road Fund Administration, purchased roads maintenance equipment to the value of N$1.8 million.
The equipment include a truck, heavy compactor, sprayer, a bitumen cutter to be used to cut and close potholes, a dumper, a compressor and a mixer.
“We did this because of the complaints from the public that our roads are not good, and so forth. Therefore, we felt that it is high time that we engage the RFA. We want to thank the RFA for their quick response to rescue us to buy these equipment,” said town CEO Raphael Liswaniso.
He added that the equipment will make their work easier and enable their designated employees to do proper maintenance.
“We have been maintaining our roads without equipment, which means they keep on being damaged because we were using only hands. So, it was more physical than using the roads equipment.
These equipment will help us very much; mostly for smaller roads. For heavier roads, we will definitely look for better contractors. But for those shorter roads, we can still do them ourselves, using the current available machinery,” explained Liswaniso.
He warned that slackness will not be tolerated from the employees who have received the equipment.
“The technical manager will draft a clear programme, where we will communicate to the public that this is the programme for roads maintenance,” he added.
Liswaniso said the contractor who was awarded a tender of N$2 million to fix the town’s roads has already started with the work, and with the just-purchased equipment, council will work together with the current contractor to ensure that the outcry from the public regarding poor roads is addressed.