GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO IMPROVING LIVING STANDARDS IN ZAMBIA

Southern Province Permanent Secretary Gladys Kristafor has said Government is motivated with the zeal to improve the living standards of its people both socially and economically.

Mrs. Kristafor said it was for this reason that Government through the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) planned for rehabilitation of selected roads in the tourist capital, Livingstone in a bid to improve access to the country’s social and economic services.

ZANIS reports that she said this in Livingstone today during the launch of the Livingstone City Township roads rehabilitation programme to be financed with part of the three point eight million Euros (€3.8 million) savings to be realised from the Zimba Livingstone Project Phase 2.

Mrs. Kristafor said the scope of work would cover rehabilitation of four prioritised urban roads with a total distance of 10.6 kilometers out of the targeted 15.40 kilometres which she said included Kaunda, Kafubu, Sichango and Airport roads respectively.

She said rehabilitation of roads would not only uplift the face of Livingstone as a city, but also ease movement of people and reduce vehicle operating costs associated with the poor state of township roads.

Mrs. Kristafor said this was part of the change that had been instituted by President Rupiah Banda alongside more mines, shopping malls, empowerment programmes and infrastructure development among others.

The Permanent Secretary urged members of the public to support Government efforts by safeguarding infrastructure that had been put in place and preventing vandalism.

Speaking earlier, Livingstone Town Clerk Vivian Chikoti said the massive infrastructure development had helped the city expand rapidly resulting in many new houses being built in the last 15 years.

Ms Chikoti said the infrastructure development had improved the revenue base for the local authority in terms of rates, adding that the soaring number of tourists boosted chargeable revenues for Livingstone City Council.

She was confident that the current rehabilitation works would play a major role in improving the welfare of residents and tourists.

Road Development Agency (RDA) Southern Region Engineer, John Nyawali warned members of the public to desist from posting political graffiti on road signs as doing so prevented motorists from getting life saving information provided by the signs.

Mr. Nyawali reiterated Government’s policy objectives of providing, maintaining and improving the road network to ensure improved accessibility and reduced road transport costs.

He revealed that the rehabilitation works would be undertaken within a period of five months.