Delay to repair damaged bridge sparks protests

A group of concerned residents from Machinjiri Township in Blantyre yesterday held demonstrations to push Blantyre City Council to expedite the construction of Makalanga Bridge on the Limbe-Machinjiri Road.

The bridge was washed away following torrential rains two weeks ago.

Speaking when they presented a petition addressed to the council’s mayor Wild Ndipo at Blantyre Civic Offices, the group’s coordinator Asabuni Phiri said since the bridge was washed away on February 12, life is difficult for people of Machinjiri and Makalanga areas.

He said: “Patients, especially pregnant women, are facing problems to reach the hospital and children are failing to go to school.

“Meanwhile, some people have taken advantage of the situation by erecting a temporary bridge and are demanding K100 for a person to cross the river.

“We want the council to erect a temporary bridge for people to use at no cost.”

Phiri also asked the council to upgrade the detour to enable minibuses and other motorists to pass.

Attempts to get a reaction from Ndipo proved futile as he was reportedly locked up in a meeting, but the council’s enforcement ranger Technician Mbvundula, who received the petition, pledged to forward it to relevant authorities.  

However, in a separate interview on Tuesday, the council’s director of engineering services Chimwemwe Ndelemani, while declining to disclose the total budget for the project, said they expect to start the work in two weeks, giving it a timeframe of four months.

He pledged that the council will maintain all access roads to make them convenient and passable.

Said Ndelemani: “The Machinjiri Road is an emergency. We never planned to do it and that actually means that some funds, which were meant for other roads, have been drawn to such an emergency project.

“Of course, we are also planning to do maintenance of some residential roads because a lot of roads have been damaged by the rains.”

Besides the damage at Makalanga, the heavy rains also partly damaged another bridge near Mkwate Trading Centre along the same road.

Meanwhile, the road is reduced to a single lane on the section.

Following the disaster, Machinjiri residents have been complaining of using bad alternative routes to reach their homes.