By Chisomo Phiri
People from Traditional Authorities (T/As) Makanjira and Lulanga have appealed to the government to expedite the construction of the Mangochi-Makanjira Road to ease the challenges they encounter when accessing essential services in Mangochi Town.
Their appeal comes at a time when the government, some months ago, announced that it had secured funds from Saudi Arabia to embark on the construction of the road.
“We are struggling to access referral health services at Mangochi District Hospital.
“Whenever we are referred there, we always know that we will meet challenges in reaching the hospital,” said Hawa Mdala, a 65-year-old woman from Mpilipili in T/A Makanjira.
Her counterpart, Ajala Imedi from Ndete Village in the same area, mentioned the struggles people experience in going to the town to get goods for sale and access banking services.
She said:”I do not know if we are indeed citizens or aliens. Our farmers are even failing to access their gardens because of damaged bridges. We do not know what will happen when the rains start this year.”
On his part, Senior Chief Makanjira said that by now, he expected the road construction to have started.
However, when contacted, Ministry of Transport Public Relations Officer Watson Maingo could not mention the exact date when the construction of the road will begin, saying there are many paperwork processes happening before the actual work can commence.
