Who has answers on Nsanje dyke?

It all started with Vice President Saulos Chilima, in his capacity as Minister of Disaster Management Affairs when on Tuesday he condemned the 823-metre earth dyke which was funded by the World Bank to the tune of over K290 million that it cannot withstand pressure from serious floods.

Commissioner for Disasters and Secretary to the Office of the Vice President Clement Chinthu Phiri said the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DodMA) only reported the challenges people were facing in the area to the World Bank for financial support and that the project was implemented by the bank itself including procurement of the contractor.

We sought an explanation from the World Bank Communications Manager Zeria Banda and her input is that the bank was only a financier not an implementer of the project, as such, the bank did not identify the contractor who produced the substandard dyke.

The MP of the area Francis Kasaila, also accused the consulting engineer of not consulting the locals during the designing phase of the dyke. His sentiments were also shared by Chairperson of the Nsanje district council, who expressed worry that they are always by-passed by the central government when implementing such projects.

It is no longer a secret that feisty corruption is thriving in government where top officials are allegedly cutting side deals with potential suppliers, contractors whose results are shoddy works such as the substandard roads and bridges in various parts of the country, which are compounding mobility problems for Malawians.

Here we are, as a country, left with an egg all over our faces, simply because somebody is mean with the truth, if the so called dyke they put up in Nsanje is anything to go by.

Malawians have a right to know the person who authorised the contractor to proceed with the project. Where exactly did the K 298 million go? Quite frankly, that mound in Nsanje is simply pathetic and no sane person can claim to have constructed it with that large sum.

Someone must be held to account for this mess and the government should have already moved in swiftly by exposing that individual.

Thus, we are asking: Who has the answers on Nsanje Dyke?