Kantanshi Independent Member of Parliament Antony Mumba says it is disheartening to see roads which are a huge government investment being washed away.

Mumba, who is also Communications, Transport, Works and Supply Parliamentary Committee member, blamed consultants in the road sector for some of the poor works.

“It is not about shoddy works, I think it starts with road engineering consultants. A consultant is, first of all hired to design that road and when they design they go back to RDA to say this road you want to make from Kitwe to Ndola will cost you so much and the reason behind this is because this road is water logged and the constructor is going to do this and that. So it starts with a consultant. I will first of all go to the neck of the consultant who seems not to fully understand our terrain when arriving at the design and the cost implications of the construction of those roads,” explained Mumba.

“The rains in Zambia did not start yesterday, the rains have been there. That is why you hire a consultant to do a feasibility study to be able to give government an idea of the terrain and maintenance that is involved. They are even paid a lot of money.”

Mumba urged RDA to be more alert when selecting consultants and contractors.

“Once the roads have been developed and designed by the consultants, RDA now advertises. Those are the adverts you now see in the papers and RDA picks the contractor. I think that process is very important to ensure road works are done properly. I think also at the top RDA needs to pull up its socks,” said Mumba.

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela recently told Parliament that the massive cracks which are developing on some roads had nothing to do with shoddy works.

And Chitotela told critics that contrary to their assertions, the RDA was not controlled by State House but it was supervised by his ministry.