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Itai Mazire Mashonaland East
Marondera Rural District Council (MRDC) will next week commence a massive infrastructural rehabilitation exercise in its 23 wards.

The rural local authority said funds had been set aside from its $504 000 supplementary budget for 2018.

In an interview, MRDC chairperson Mr Patrick Chidhakwa said the objective of the exercise was to improve accessibility on road network.

“We have set aside a budget to rehabilitate all gravel roads in all our wards. Resources are already in place, our grader is brand new and it’s up to the task. Our major priority is to rehabilitate Masomere Road, which is a key link road in our district.

“If funds are availed, we plan to tar major link roads in our district, hence the need to start the rehabilitation exercise with Masomere Road,” said Mr Chidhakwa.

MRDC, since the beginning of the year, has been able collect land rates and levies enabling them to improve service delivery.

The rural district has a total population of at least 50 000 people, the majority being small-scale, A1 and A2 farmers.

Mr Chidhakwa said part of the rehabilitation exercise was targeting schools and clinics.

“We have at least 70 farm houses in the whole district and they need a facelift. They are now old while others fell prey to vandalism and we need to rebuild them.

“There are a lot of satellite schools in the district that we intend to upgrade considering that schools opened this week. Already, there are six schools we opened at the beginning of the year and we need to revisit them in the rehabilitation exercise.

“Clinics are also part of the rehabilitation exercise. We need to improve the conditions at maternity homes, at the two clinics we recently opened,” he said.