By Petronella Sibeene WINDHOEK Financing remains a major challenge for the maintenance of the existing road infrastructure, says the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Joel Kaapanda. According to Kaapanda, Namibia has to maintain a balance between the financing of existing roads and the need to construct new ones. While most of the roads are nearing the end of their lifespan, a huge gap exists between available financial resources and the actual required financing levels. The past few years have witnessed an annual decline in funds allocated towards the maintenance of the roads network. In 2005, an amount of N$420ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million was budgeted for roads. This figure was reduced to N$398ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million last year. Unfortunately, maintenance needs for roads continue to spiral each year while resources remain scarce. The annual budget for building and maintaining roads is estimated at N$500ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million Namibia’s roads network stretches for more than 42ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 kilometres. In light of the scarce resources, the Minister welcomed the reintroduction of the Mass Distance Road-User Charges that were halted last year. The ministry has also instructed the Roads Authority to investigate the possible introduction of toll-gates in Namibia. Kaapanda says government has now adopted the Sector Wide Approach (Swap), which entails putting all financial resources from donors and financiers into one basket for government to decide on priorities in the roads sub-sector. He also commended the United States Government on the Millennium Challenge Account aimed at investing in infrastructure provision among other developing economies. “The envisaged substantial grant-funding shall immensely complement GRN’s own on-going efforts towards attaining economic growth and development,” he added. Whereas infrastructure financing and skills shortages remain some of the daunting challenges for Namibia, Kaapanda says they can be addressed with concerted efforts of planning. However, planning would be worthless unless it is a product of integrated and result-oriented planning among other virtues, he cautioned. Kaapanda spoke during the first meeting of the thematic working group on infrastructure (NDP3) on Monday.