By Ragan M. Conteh
The Member of Parliament representing Constituency 059, Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara, has stated that, as a politician, he was fed up with persistent feeder roads funding. “It will be better if NACSA and other development partners, including Councils, forget what people describe as feeder road funding.”
He said a lot of money has been expended on feeder roads rehabilitations, but, in the same year, rains damage the same roads, while, in the following year, government and partners expend other monies for the same roads again.
Hon. AKK said if government calculates the money expended for certain roads rehabilitation, say for ten years, government will begin to pave those roads by installment for such a period would have been completed ever since.
According to the MP, except politicians are not sincere, they prefer to give their people those feeder roads contracts, but “if we want sustainable roads to improve the livelihood of the people we should stop funding feeder roads and convert those monies to start pavement now.”
He appealed to NaCSA and development partners to assess feeder roads and begin to convert monies to pave them. “If government knows that every year certain roads cost certain amount, let the council use that money to tar the road.”
According to him, government should fund certain roads by installment. When they pave the road, by ten years, nobody will be thinking of rehabilitation again.
He urged the authorities to redirect energy and monies to sustainable roads construction rather than expending monies for feeder roads to save cost.
The MP stated that the issue of feeder road cuts across government sectors, adding that NaCSA, Agriculture, Road Maintenance Fund, SLRA and many other sectors expend huge chunks of money on feeder roads rehabilitation every year.
“We are really wasting resources and also eating into the future of our children yet unborn,” he said.
He urged contractors of these projects to start constructing sustainable roads in the country rather than spending monies on rehabilitation of feeder roads yearly.