Rutsiro to upgrade feeder roads next year

Rutsiro District is set to upgrade its feeder road network in the next fiscal year, the Executive Secretary of the Western Province, Paul Jabo, has revealed. He said a feeder road project is in the pipeline as the district was recently listed among beneficiaries of a World Bank project in which Rwf621 million will go into developing the district’s feeder roads. He was addressing lawmakers as districts in his province presented their 2013/2014 Budget Estimates and Medium Term Expenditure Plan (MTEF) and challenges. Among others, two tea factories are set to be put up there to boost production as well as employment as each plant “will employ not less than 3,000 people, Jabo added.In the 2013/14 fiscal budget, Rutsiro had Rwf9.2 billion as total approved budget but it is Rwf8.9 billion in the new budget. Mayor Gaspard Byukusenge outlined the district’s 2013/14 priorities as: rural settlement sites with basic infrastructures; agricultural production and productivity through the soil protection and development of cash and food crop, livestock, fish farming and beekeeping sub sectors; electricity accessibility and trimming the use of wood as source of energy. Electrification will absorb lion’s share of Rwf422 million or 16 per cent. The district has also a line up of micro hydro power projects to increase electricity supply and protect the environment by cutting on the use of fuel wood, Jabo said. Call for special programme MP Faith Mukakalisa advocated that the district be given more budget support because it is lagging behind in terms of development. She said she has found the district in an appalling state whenever she visited. “I think it too needs a special programme just like we have proposed Ngororero, Nyaruguru, and others. This district is lagging behind in the area of infrastructure. Even when you look at its inhabitants, they appear needy. I think there is a problem, it could be considered for a special programme,” Mukakalisa said. However, Jabo told the lawmakers that the residents were not as poor as perceived. He said the district is rich in coltan (columbite-tantalite) and that they are working to help local miners form cooperatives so that they engage in activities that impact on their welfare.‘Irresponsible drinking’ “In their day to day way of life–there is another behaviour we observed in that zone. People make money but when they retire to their homes, truckloads of beer head to the area and people spend all their money on beer and that’s the end of it all!” Jabo said. “There is a village I visited and they told me that ‘here, two truckloads of beer must arrive, every evening, and must be emptied.’ It becomes something like a bet. And thereafter, they start fighting each other.” Jabo said this trend is part of problems they are aware of, but security agencies, the provincial administration and the local leaders, “put it top of our priorities.” “The field visits we shall conduct will be aimed at collaborating with districts such that people are educated. They are not poor but there is need for a [better] mentality to turn things around.” Other challenges, the mayor said, are geographical locations that favour landslides and erosion, inaccessibility and poor transport infrastructure, and disasters that lead to unplanned expenditures.

National

Rutsiro to upgrade feeder roads next year