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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
VICTORIA Falls Municipality has started rehabilitating roads after receiving $20 000 emergency maintenance funds from the Zimbabwe National Roads Agency (Zinara).

In an interview, Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube said almost all the roads and storm drains in the resort were severely damaged by the recent heavy rains.

He said while rehabilitation work has already started, the local authority was also carrying out a survey on the road network to come up with the extent and cost of the damage.

The town clerk said the survey is expected to be completed next week.

“We have embarked on a project to clear storm drains and attend to potholes after heavy rains left excessive damage. Most of our road network was destroyed by the rains and we are currently assessing and quantifying the damage,” said Mr Dube.

He said the worst affected areas are residential suburbs such as Mkhosana where there was no proper road network and storm drains.

“We received $20 000 for emergency work as part of a disbursement from the Road Network Fund and already we have started with Syringa Road. We will be doing all roads because as a tourist destination we need to have a good road network that attracts visitors.

“You will notice that while all suburbs were affected, Mkhosana is the worst because at inception the suburb didn’t have properly planned roads.

“We had complaints at Mukali Business Centre where there was water logging because there are no storm drains. Our engineer is doing designs on how water can be directed from that area,” Mr Dube said.

Recently, businessman Mr Silas Maligo, who runs shops at Mukali, complained to council that he was losing business as customers were failing to access the premises which were surrounded by water.

Meanwhile, Mr Dube said the municipality was also clearing water hyacinth from its three major sewer ponds so that it can be able to disinfect mosquito breeding areas. -@ncubeleon