Focus on building, upgrading roads

By KELVIN JOE
BASIC services will reach people in rural areas if provincial governments and district authorities focus on building and upgrading roads, a local leader says.
Rigo North local level government president Roger McKenzie said Central government needed to prioritise rural roads before thinking about providing other services.
“When roads are improved, basic services such as education, health and other development projects will be provided effectively to improve lives,” he said.
“When Government is talking about rural development, they must think about upgrading roads first.”
McKenzie said through the roads, aid posts, schools and business activities would be in a better position to provide reliable services.
He was responding to a concern raised by Rigo MP Lekwa Gure and Kairuku-Hiri MP Peter Isoaimo about the state of some rural and district roads that needed upgrading during the presentation of the 2022 provincial budget which was passed last Dec 21.
Gure said provincial and district roads needed to be identified and given attention because of the confusion between the provincial and district authorities on who was responsible for maintaining which roads in the province.
“We need to identify provincial and district roads and work together to improve infrastructure and other basic services as a province.”