Debt constraining road maintenance in Cabo Delgado

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Debt constraining road maintenance in Cabo Delgado

8:52 CAT | 04 May 2023

File photo: DW

The National Roads Administration (ANE) owes around €13 billion to contractors in Cabo Delgado province, affecting the continuity of work and prolonging the degradation of many roads.

Complaints from ordinary commuters and transporters regarding the difficulty of driving on the roads in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province continue to mount up. Passenger carriers, for example, say they are losing money because the business of moving people and goods is rendered uneconomic by the state of the roads.

“This is harvest time, but we can’t get to the production zones to get food and we’re hampered by roads that aren’t in good condition. We can’t get into other zones because of the roads,” driver Cássimo Salimo told DW.

Complaints also come from the district administrators. During a meeting of the Provincial Road Commission, the administrator of Chiúre, Oliveira Amimo, brought up the damage to the road network caused by the rainy season. The situation aggravated the traffic problem in the district, which is traversed by National Road One (EN1).

“We had major road destruction in sections which had been repaired just two years ago. And during the first quarter [of this year], we did not see any activity to improve these sections,” Amino said.

Debt impedes road rehabilitation

The ANE admits that debts to contractors involved in rehabilitation are impacting road maintenance. Jorge Guvanhica, ANE delegate in Cabo Delgado, says that the debt stands at about 917 billion meticais (around €13 billion).

“No payments have been made since December. […] As a result, in several districts there are works which, if not totally paralyzed, are running at half speed,” he said.

Financial limitations on the part of the National Roads Administration are at the root of the lack of payments to contractors. Lack of funds is also preventing the launch of new tenders for the rehabilitation of roads in the province.

Most of the roads whose maintenance is hostage to the payment of overdue invoices are in the north of the province and form part of the Cabo Delgado Reconstruction Programme, Guvanhica explains.

“The bulk of the debt includes various activities of the PRCD [Reconstruction Plan for Cabo Delgado] including rebuilding bridges on the Montepuez-Nairoto road and the road from Nairoto to Mueda, interventions that were being carried out in various districts in the northern part of our province,” he explains.

The information was shared during the Provincial Roads Commission, where sustainable solutions to minimise the precariousness of the province’s road network were discussed.

Source: Deutsche Welle