Because of the focus on labor based methods, a lot of people have been employed in various stages of the rehabilitation of the roads in Pemba. The workers are involved in clearing the roads, earth works and formation works and in gabion weaving.
A newly released study by Pöyry, which has managed the Norwegian funded project in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Transport at Zanzibar, concludes that the job creation and training has been an important socio-economic benefit from the rural roads project.
The job creation comes in addition to the benefits Pemba gets from the 44.7 kilometers of tarmac road, ready by December 2011.
New skills
Next to the road Mariam Salekhe Bakari is waving gabions, which will be used to strengthen and protect road slopes. She learned the skill through the project, and she is now making approximately one gabion a day, making it much more cost efficient to produce the gabions locally, than to ship them in from abroad.
–I needed the money to be able to buy pencils and books for my children, she says, grateful for having acquired a paid job.
She now hopes that she may use her new skill also after the project has finished, for example by weaving cages for animals.
Better access
One of the biggest problems for the people in the villages in Pemba has been their inability to access social services like schools and hospitals, due to poor rural roads, especially during the rainy season. Many people have lost their lives not for lack of healthcare, but because they did not reach the clinic in time, writes Pöyry in the study on socio-economic impacts from the new roads.
Bakari is proud of the new roads, which are supported by the gabions she is making.
–Before, when giving birth, many women would not reach the clinic in time, sometimes with very serious consequences. This will be easier with the new roads, she explains.
Good for business
Several stretches of new road have already been taken into use, and this has shortened the travels for people in Pemba. For Juma Makame who, like so many others in Pemba, works as a fisherman, the new roads have provided better access to the markets.
–Now I will use only 45 minutes to the market, while I used to use more than 3 hours. The new road is very good for my business, says Juma, who is on his way back from the market by bike.
Businessman Kombo Mohammed Kombo, who has his small stall next to the road, has already noticed an increase in traffic, meaning more costumers and increased income.
–I will use the increased income to expand my business, says Kombo, who looks forward to the day the rural roads are finished.
FACTS: Pemba Rural Roads Project
- The objective is to rehabilitate 44.7 kilometers of rural roads in Pemba and to enhance the management capacity of the Ministry of Communications and Transport’s Roads Department.
- The roads are planned finished by December 2011.
- The project is financed by Norway and the Government of Zanzibar.
- The chosen work approach is a mixture of equipment and labor-based methods.
- The work method applied has attracted national and international interest as it creates significant employment opportunities for local communities. More than a thousand people have been directly employed in the project so far. In addition around 500 people has benefited indirectly from the project, which has tried to procure as much as possible from Pemba based businesses.