TRUCKS CHOKE COPPERBELT
Currently, trucks are ma rooned at Kasumbalesa bor der due to the slow pace of clearing the goods on the Democratic Republic of Congo side
And Mr Mulenga says the revenue has declined mas sively due to the current sit uation at the border.
He has however indicated talks have continued with Democratic Republic of Congo over the issue.
The traffic jam has re portedly led to the queue of trucks extending as far as be yond Chambishi town.
And members of the pub lic have called on govern ment to find a solution to the traffic jam from Cham bishi to Kasumbalesa border which has persisted for al most two months.
Recently, a Kitwe busi nessman, Mr Van Wyk Mum ba complained that the pre dicament will cause a lot of problems if left unattended to.
Mr Mumba said people along the road had identified a business opportunity and supplying critical essentials to the stranded drivers in terms of water, bread, sugar and other commodities.
He said this had brought about sanitation challenges along the whole stretch as it was getting worse by the day.
Mr Mumba said the situ ation was not healthy espe cially now that the country was fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the situation had the potential for disease out breaks, a situation he said should not be allowed to happen as the country had no capacity to contain an other outbreak.
“We need an urgent solu tion to this predicament and the time to resolve it is now and not tomorrow.
“On a daily basis, com muters have to face the harsh reality of maneuver ing through this heavy traffic with caution,” Mr Mumba said.
He added that what had become a norm were acci dents involving trucks flip ping now with the statistics not being reported.
He said there was need for political will to resolve the problem as stranded trucks also pose a fire risk that could engulf all the goods in transit and affect the econo my directly.
Recently, the office of the Mayor of Chingola and the ministries of Foreign and Home Affairs said they would engage the DRC gov ernment on the matter.