In our country, and among our leaders, in particular, there is no urgency in doing anything, no matter how important it is and no matter how much neglect would be detrimental.
There was a time when about 130 megawatts of electricity left the national grid in the wake of the destruction that a tropical cyclone exacted on Kapichira Hydropower Plant in Chikwawa.
Businesses collapsed amid lengthy periods of power outage and people lost their jobs. The incessant sounds of generators across the country typified a country grappling with a terrible power crisis that demanded swift attention.
It was only over a year later when the power plant got fixed and the much-needed megawatts returned to the grid.
Of course, by the time Kapichira got up and running, many small-scale businesses—in fact, even bigger ones—had folded up their ventures because they had exhausted their capital or could just not carry on because electricity was at the centre of the businesses.
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Elsewhere, issues of urgency are paramount. That is exactly why sometimes budgets are altered along the way of implementation when something urgent needs resources.
In fact, there are allocations for emergencies, even though the funds could not be that substantial, because such happenings do not have to wait for Parliament to make approvals.
For a long time, we have been talking about the thousands of potholes that dot the M1 Road.
Of particular interest is the stretch between Blantyre and Lilongwe, which has been neglected for years. The rest of the road cannot even be talked about in the potholes discourse, because what is there are ditches and long stretches with no sign that some tarmac was there.
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At least from Lilongwe going up North, some work is happening, and the road will wear a new face. That is, however, another strange situation because years are passing since the projects were inaugurated, but there is little progress on the ground.
Back to the potholes on the M1 stretch between Blantyre and Lilongwe, one would think it was necessary to treat this as a crisis requiring immediate attention.
It is strange that authorities allow the potholes to grow in size and increase in number before they can send a contractor to fix them.
Drivers have had their cars’ tyres extensively damaged by the numerous potholes and no one really seems to care.
It is only in Malawi where you have a major national road punctuated by potholes and ditches at every stretch.
There obviously are accidents that have been caused by the potholes.
With the billions of Kwacha that the Roads Fund Administration (RFA) collects from the two tollgates between Lilongwe and Blantyre, we should not be talking about this stretch being in such poor state.
In fact, for the sake of transparency and accountability, and in line with the Access to Information law, which provides for the disclosure of public information without being asked, RFA was supposed to be announcing proactively how the billions collected through the tollgates are being utilised.
The authority was even supposed to have an electronic display board where every detail about proceeds from the tollgates is shown.
Malawians deserve to know how their money is being used.
They deserve to understand why hundreds of sections of the M1 do not qualify for a national road when they are being milked daily through the tollgates.
In fact, they deserve to know why they are being charged for driving on a road that should have been closed, if we were a serious country at all.
The installation of the tollgates, in the understanding of many, was that the collected money should be used to improve the condition of the road bearing the gates.
In other countries, a road has to be in perfect condition first before a tollgate is mounted on it. The idea is that the money should help in maintaining that perfect condition.
Here, we erected tollgates on very bad roads, and then we are failing to make the roads better.
Like others have said before, several sections of the M1 are death traps. The numerous potholes make driving on the road a tough task.
It is not clear how many fatal accidents authorities expect to see first, which are clearly attributed to the road’s poor condition, before they can treat the matter as a crisis requiring immediate attention.
