Government spending a lot due to adverse weather conditions

Blantyre, March 18, Mana: Secretary to the Treasury Betchani Tchereni has challenged engineers as well as planners in the country to come up with proper infrastructure designs with high quality that can withstand adverse weather conditions, noting government is spending a lot of resources in reconstruction.

Tchereni said this on Monday in Blantyre during the opening of the African Road Maintenance Funds Association of Southern Africa Focal Group (ASAFG) that has been hosted by the Roads Fund Administration (RFA) and drew participants from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Malawi.

He said it is high time Malawi considered constructing roads, bridges and other facilities that can withstand hostile weather conditions, adding maintenance of amenities like roads and bridges is proving more expensive than just constructing strong materials that cannot be shaken during disasters.

Tchereni emphasized the need for engineers and planners to be on top of their game, as this is the only way for Malawi to move forward in as far as development is concerned.

“When we are reconstructing or doing maintenance, it means we are still investing the work we did previously and this is not progress.

“The last Cyclone Freddy taught us so many things which include the need for durable infrastructure. Imagine the country will need US$900 million to rework on bridges, roads and other facilities which were destroyed by the cyclone in 2023.

“At the same time, Malawi exports do not exceed US$600 million annually. Let me commend organizers for this meeting for coming up with a very relevant theme dubbed: The impact of legal frameworks and climate change on the sustainability of road funds. The theme is timely and befits all countries since climate change has not spared any,” he said.

Tchereni, therefore, reminded Malawians that the country needs innovations in the manner how it finances its projects, saying the country cannot continue relying on the same ways of raising funds for development.

On his part, Board Chairperson for RFA in Malawi, Matthews Chikankheni, said the meeting is aimed at sharing best practices and experiences from different member countries.

Chikankheni said RFA has benefitted a lot from such meetings, citing some knowledge on how to run toll gates which was borrowed from countries like Zambia and Mozambique while others also keep on learning from Malawi when it comes to road fuel levy management, among others.

“RFA continues to make progress despite facing some challenges. We will shortly establish other two toll gates, Lilongwe-Mchinji and Lilongwe-Salima roads. All these are aimed at serving Malawians better,” he said.

Meanwhile, ASAFG Chairperson Nkekeletse Makara has called for serious investment in all the RFAs, saying despite other modes of transport, road transport is used by 90 percent of people in Africa and 80 percent of goods are also transported through roads in the same continent.

“We need to fulfill the African Union Agenda of ensuring connectivity and free trade but these can only happen when there are good roads and bridges networks in the African continent.

“I agree with the Secretary to the Treasury that reconstruction is expensive. Most importantly is to come up with durable infrastructure that can stand the test of time,” said Makara.

This year's meeting is the fourth to be held in Malawi, following other meetings which were held in 2011, 2016 and 2019.