Malawi govt petitioned on completion of Lumbadzi-Dowa-Chezi road upgrading

Concerned citizens of Dowa District have petitioned Malawi government demanding for completion of Lumbadzi –Dowa-Chezi Road upgrading saying it is currently in a pathetic state .

Speaking when presenting the petition at parliament building in Lilongwe on Friday, one of the Concerned Citizens, Abraham Liwonde said Lack of Tarmac Road is causing social and economic challenges in the district.

“Dowa has one referral hospital and situated at the Boma. We have a big challenge to connect to the Boma more especially during the rainy season. Many people fail to access the hospital as the road condition has made the transport charges more expensive, patients are in many cases referred to Salima or Ntchisi depending on which side of the district they come from”, he said

Liwonde said farmers have had hard times to transport their commodities to the main markets and this have negatively affected them as they access markets very late and eventually making them poor .He added that lack of tarmac road has eventually made the district head office isolated, deserted and inaccessible.

Dowa east Member of Parliament Chimwendo Banda said members of parliament from Dowa have been pushing for the completion of the road in parliament but to no avail.

“As members of parliament from Dowa we have been pushing for it in parliament but nothing has happened and these people are tired of waiting for answers because they are entitled to tarmac road and that the road is in pathetic situation,” he said.

Receiving the petition, Chairperson of Transport and Public Infrastructure in parliament committee Victor White Mbewe said he will hand in the petition to relevant authorities .

Some of the demand in the petition are that people from Dowa are demanding for immediate allocation of adequate funds towards completion of the project and that contractors must re-open the camp site and resume road works as this has denied employment to the people of Dowa and has impacted on the economic activities of people living along the said road.

They also demand for the reversal of the decision to curtail the road project only up to Dowa district council headquarters saying it must proceed as planned to Chezi.