Parliament rehab costs China K1.5bn
The Chinese Government says it has spent about $1.5 million (about K1.5 billion) on rehabilitating Malawi’s Parliament Building in Lilongwe.
Speaking at Parliament Building yesterday after the completion of maintenance works, Chinese Ambassador Long Zhou said they felt duty bound to rehabilitate the building considering that works involved, especially the roofing, were sophisticated.
“The project might not be very big but it involves many sophisticated techniques. The completion of the project is another example of good cooperation between the two countries,” he said.
Zhou added that the Chinese Government is committed to working with Malawi in areas of agriculture, health, infrastructure among others.
The building, constructed about 13 years ago, had a leaking roof, broken floor tiles and other damages that needed maintenance.
Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani Hara said she engaged the Chinese Embassy to consider doing maintenance works as the leaking roof posed a challenge to parliamentary proceedings.
She commended the Chinese Government for the support in the maintenance of the building.
The Speaker said it was difficult at times for some members of Parliament to participate in deliberations during the rainy season.
Said Hara: “For the first time in the past two years, I have, with my colleagues, presided over deliberations in the Chamber without experiencing any leakages.”
The maintenance works started in September last year and were completed in January this year.
The Parliament Building is one of the projects that the Chinese Government implemented after Malawi cut its bilateral ties with Taiwan in favour of China.
Another project, the Karonga-Chitipa Road which the Chinese government facilitated to cement its relationship with Malawi, also got extensively damaged and the Chinese Government rehabilitated it.
For the Parliament Building, the rehabilitation works included exterior and interior maintenance. The outdoor works involved resurfacing of over 11 000 square metres of the roofing with flexible waterproof materials, refilling of domes with waterproof glue, waterproofing treatment of over 200 nodes, construction of more than 11 000 square meters of roof mortar protection layers, replacement of colour steel tiles and transparent sheet and repainting of roofing equipment.
Indoor works involved restoration of the damaged tiles totaling 2 000 square metres in the lobby and corridors on the first and second floors, repairing of the 30 damaged walls and the broken ceilings. Fixing tiles in the ministerial and member’s lounge and repainting of 10 offices.
