BUJUMBURA March 31st (ABP) – The Ministry of Infrastructure, Equipment and Social Housing, Déogratias Nsanganiyumwami, in collaboration with the Road Agency of Burundi (ABB) informed the public that on March 30, 2022, will start the manual road maintenance works. It was during an information session held Tuesday, March 29, 2022 in Bujumbura, for communal administrators and representatives of the 57 village development cooperatives of Cibitoke, Bubanza Bujumbura and Muramvya provinces, who will be involved in the execution of that work.
Mr. Nsanganiyumwami indicated that this manual maintenance work is the 1st phase of a 2-phase program. Thus, the ARB will entrust this 1st phase work to the cooperatives. According to the contract, the hillside cooperatives undertake to carry out the work of cleaning the gutters and culverts. The village side cooperatives will have the task of building crossings, culverts, bridges, clearing the shoulders, embankments (6 meters), without forgetting the removal of landslides and alluvium.
According to the said contract “The members of the village development cooperative must carry out any other useful task to guarantee the movement of goods and people on the section of the road covered by that contract without, however, expecting an additional payment”. The contract calls on the cooperatives to ensure that the right-of-way of the road is respected, which must be respected over the 6m.
The ARB has informed those cooperatives that it will provide them with adequate equipment in the coming days. In the meantime, she calls on the cooperatives to use their own equipment while waiting for this delivery.
The ARB will make monthly visits to the cooperatives for the validation of the work and the evaluation of the state of the kit, which will motivate the payment. A sum of 100,000 BIF/month/km well maintained will be paid to the cooperatives for the work carried out.
According to Mr. Nsanganiyumwami, 9 roads will be affected: RN1 (Presidency-Kanyaru Haut), RN2 (Bugarama-Gitega), RN5 (Nyamitaka-Ruhwa), RN6 (Kayanza-Kobero), RN7 (Kamesa-Gitaba), RN8 (Gitega-Rutana), RN9 (Tenga-Ntamba), RN11 (Mabanda-Sosumo), RN12 (Gitega-Muyinga). These 9 roads total 909 km. He pointed out that community work on the other axes will continue.
The representatives of the cooperatives mentioned the contradiction between the 125,000 BIF / month / km well maintained that they were going to receive, a sum appearing on the previous contract and the sum of 100,000 BIF of the contract in force. In this regard, they were told that this amount had been set by the Council of Ministers for greater equity among all cooperatives. It was when there were some cooperatives for which this sum was between 80,000 and 95,000 BIF. While for others this sum was greater than 100,000 BIF.
The representatives of the cooperatives expressed their concern regarding the management of cases of crops that are found in the right-of-way of the road on the 6 meters. In this regard, the Minister in charge of infrastructure replied that these plants must be allowed to flower, pointing out that it will no longer be necessary to cultivate there after their harvest.
For him, the cost of a paved road is very high (between 1 and 1.2 billion BIF). He added that this assumes that when you acquire this infrastructure everyone should be involved in its maintenance for sustainability. The representatives of the cooperatives present signed the contracts binding them to the ARB for the execution of that work.