Problem Solving

When the city council came through and tore out the entrance to our community’s entrance, it created a crisis of sorts.  There’s a government clinic within the premises and large numbers of people come in and out of the gate all day long. Vehicles come in and out for the agricultural programs as well as the residents who live on site.  The first thing the community needed to do was to construct a bridge.  That solution was pretty easy to come by in theory, but in planning and site construction it turned out to be quite complicated.

Rather than have one engineer overseeing construction of the bridge, there were five to six!  I watched events unfold as everyone became an overseer and only one person was working.  Not that all Zambians function like this, but it’s not uncommon to see road construction crews of 12 plus men all standing around watching one man work.  The same principle was at work here.  Because of the plethora of opinions on how the bridge should best be built, we ended up with no cohesive strategy for the bridge.  Major things were overlooked regarding the integrity of the structure for vehicles, but that didn’t really matter as much because this way everyone contributed.

I’ve included the picture to the left to demonstrate why our driveway was torn up in the first place.  The driveway that we did have passed over two large drainpipes.  Of course, there was nothing wrong with the drainpipes other than that they were clogged with dirt.  Rather than working to unclog the drains, the city council decided to take corrective action by tearing the whole thing out.  Again this illustrated a different approach to problem solving.  Here, little emphasis is placed on preventative maintenance.  When a little problem became a big problem, then the solution was to entirely replace.  Considering the inconvenience to all and the total net expenditure, this has ended up being a very costly venture indeed.

Trapped

There’s been a lot of flooding in our area over the last few weeks because there is nowhere for water to drain to.  So water has submerged dirt roads and flooded residential areas.  The community in our area has gotten fed up – so the Lusaka City Council has finally sent “help” .  The plan?  To create drainage ditches on either side of the road using a ditch digger.   The hope was that this would allow drainage for flooded plots.

The city coucil never warned residents of their action, they just started digging trenches that are now a couple miles long.  Residences with entrances off the main road are now cut off.  The council has yet to put drainage pipes or temp vehicle bridges for every entrance.  The trench is 3-4 ft deep and wide enough that children can’t jump across.

Our driveway was torn up at 17:00, just before people started to arrive home from work.   Luckily, I came home early today and passed through the front entrance.  An hour later, the council came through without notice and created an impassable flowing river.  So, we’re trapped in until a bridge is made.

Our neighbors, the Singletons weren’t so fortunate.  They returned home too late and were trapped outside.  We’ll see how long it takes for the council to put things back together again.  Meanwhile, we’re getting used to the idea that our vehicle won’t be of much use to us.