Thursday, April 06, 2017
Madam President, members of the legislature, members
of the judiciary, members of the cabinet and other Government officials, members
of the diplomatic corps, Madam Margaret Kilo-Resident Representative of the
AfDB, the traditional leaders, chiefs and elders, the peace loving people of
River Gee and Maryland counties, the fourth estate, ladies and gentlemen.
The laterite or dirt road between Fish Town and Harper
undergoes tremendous wear and tear during yearly rain seasons.
Because of this fact, in December of 2007, the
Government of Liberia submitted to the Bank a financing request for the Labor Base
Public Works Project, which was approved with an Initial Grant of approximately
$25 Million Dollars for the rehabilitation
of the Fish Town to Harper Road including the rehabilitation and construction
of 10 schools, 10 health facilities and 10 boreholes within the River Gee and
Maryland counties, capacity building and other social benefits which was signed on February 29, 2008.
After the completion of the rehabilitation of the Fish
Town - Harper Road in 2012, there was limited maintenance of the road which
defeated the sustainability mantra
of the African Development Bank.
The Government of Liberia again submitted to the Bank
a financing request for the upgrading of the 130 km road from laterite to bitumen
standard and the Board approved the $64 MD loan in September of 2013 for the
FTHRP Phase I.
The
paving of Fish Town-Harper Road was planned in two phases. The first phase included the paving of the
50 km section from Harper to Karloken and the Maintenance of 80 km gravel section
with associated components, including, Construction Supervision, Monitoring and
Evaluation, Financial Audit, Technical & Road Safety Audit, HIV / AIDS,
malaria, Ebola and Gender Sensitization, Road Reform and Capacity building.
Phase I is well underway with a
targeted completion date of December 2018. Work completion to date is 37%.
Phase II consists of the paving of the section from
Karloken to Fish Town, the 80 km gravel road that was being maintained under
the Phase I project.
Because this 130 km stretch of road is a spur on the Trans-West African Highway Corridor
that eventually will open up the south eastern region of Liberia to Cote
d’Ivoire, the Mano River Union through its objective to boost the post-conflict economic recovery of the
MRU basin, by improving road infrastructure, got involved and the project took
a regional dimension and is now called the Mano River Union Road Development
and Transport Facilitation Programme.
This Programme will be
jointly financed by the Bank, the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea and
ECOWAS.
The key expected outcomes at
the end of 2020 will be: 276.35 km of road, a 200-metre bridge over
the Cavalla River, 2 joint border posts (JBP), 7.8 km of urban roads, 70 km of
feeder roads, 2 bus stations, 5 markets, 5 rehabilitated schools, 3 health centres,
construction of a counselling and social reintegration centre and 3 boreholes.
ECOWAS will be responsible
for the execution of the "transport facilitation" component in
accordance with community regulations in force. It will supervise the construction
of the 2 JBPs and the bridge over the Cavalla River.
To ensure sustainability,
the buzz word of the Bank, the Bank has emphasized the need for and
provided financial support of the Road
Sector Reforms, which includes the establishing of a Roads Authority or Roads
Agency (the entity responsible for the maintenance of roads); the establishing
of the Road Fund (the funding arm or revenue stream mechanism for the support
of the Roads Authority); the establishing of the Axle Load Management
Framework; the establishing of a Road Safety Council and finally, defining the
new mandate of the Ministry of Public Works after establishing the Roads
Authority.
In short, Madam President, fellow citizens, this is
the story of the Mano River Union Road
Development and Transport Facilitation Programme that you Madam President are
about to perform the Ground Breaking right outside this City Hall.
I thank you.
# posted by cock N bull @ 2:16 AM 
