27 May 2018

Following recent heavy rains in the Administrative Authority of Kanye, a lot of roads have been washed away leaving little or no access to many properties.

Kanye Administrative Authority (KAA) sub-council chairperson, Mr Tlhomamo Dibeela said it had always been difficult for council to cope with the road maintenance demands due to the hilly topography of some villages within the administrative authority and limited resources at their disposal.

He noted that the terrain of villages like Kanye made it difficult to have a sustained unpaved roads maintenance works since the gravel was always washed away whenever the village experienced heavy rains.

Mr Dibeela said the internal roads infrastructure was an area of concern in the sub-district because its absence was imposing significant limitations on the economic growth and development of communities.

He stressed that movement of vehicles, including public transport, was confined to the paved roads network due to the bad status of the unpaved roads, causing residents to walk long distances from their homesteads to points where public transport was accessible.

Mr Dibeela also stated that the sustainable way to arrest the above challenges was to implement a drainage master plan and paving of internal roads, especially along steep road sections.

He added that due to budgetary constraints, the administrative authority had resorted to paving short road sections and the construction of individual lined drainage channels in instalments through the re-current vote.

He said it had proved inadequate to address the demand.

He noted that there were ongoing projects such as the gravelling of the  Kanye/Ditojana road, the construction of a second culvert in Molapowabojang and the paving of the Logaba combi route.

He said in the current financial year, KAA had lined up some short distance paving works to spot improve some critical roads.

He added that they also planned to improve the drainage system by constructing drainage channels on areas where they experienced stormwater flooding such as Lodubeng, Kgosing and Lotlhakane East.

Mr Dibeela stated that for the paving works projects, the division was at an advanced stage of procurement as all the material had been procured and recruitment of local tradesman to be engaged for construction works was at the contract signing stage. ENDS