Plumtree Town Council has earmarked $35 000 for the rehabilitation of roads and the project is set for completion before the end of the year, a senior official has said.
Town secretary Davis Luthe said the rehabilitation of roads was expected to commence before the beginning of the rainy season.
“We have embarked on a massive road maintenance programme through which we have earmarked about $35 000 to work on feeder roads in the town’s six wards,” he told NewsDay in an interview.
“Some of our roads are as old as pre-independence.”
Luthe said the programme was a complementary effort to ensure roads were user-friendly.
“This is being done to complement the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration, which allocated $20 000 in the first quarter,” he said.
The money was used to rehabilitate a 1,2km stretch on Mathendele Road which is now complete.
“Our roads have not been good in terms of maintenance and upkeep because the economy was not sound,” Luthe said.
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“Resources were not enough for us to embark on capital projects.
“So right now, we are trying to leverage on changing the shape of our roads to be more accessible.”
Council aims to rehabilitate 170km of the road network.
“This is our way of demonstrating to the community that we have the ability to plough back and improve service delivery,” Luthe said.
“This is also meant to improve the face and value of the town.”
Meanwhile, the border town has set up its own fire department to end its dependence on Bulawayo City Council.
“We have established a fire team through which we will be able to tackle fire incidents,” Luthe said.
“We were relying on the Bulawayo fire fighting team and because the team was stationed 100 km away from Plumtree, we were having problems.
“But we are happy now that we have a team and have employed a fire officer to keep track of fires in the border town.”
He said council was also working with the Environmental Management Agency to prevent fire outbreaks.
