PROGRESS – THE NORTH ROAD

By Derek Mwale

Take me to the north pole. Where I can take up a passive role: where I can enrich my soul. That’s the feeling I got when I show the construction of the north road. One of the longest roads in Zambia; The great north road, has a twin or companion. Imagine an open tunnel providing seamless transportation from one end to the other – that’s the north road. It’s not just a road but a marvelous infrastructure with a couple of well build bridges. Back in history, this is like the building of the new trading route; making trading and commerce easier and faster.
Once the road is constructed: there will be a boom without a burst. More benefits that are permanent and long-term. Trade and commerce will be handled much faster. It will lead to the exploration and development of new areas improving the social and economic conditions of the local people.
Production of goods will be increased and stimulated. By reducing the time of delivering raw materials to industries. And also, employees and business executives can easily get to work much faster. Lastly, goods will be transported faster to consumers hence enhancing commerce. With the increased rate of production means increased economic growth.
This road will facilitate the insurance industry by reducing the number of accidents. This means more money in the pool of liquidity to be invested back into the economy or the stock market preferably.
The road will enhance other industries like warehousing, advertising and banking. For banking and warehousing – It will be much safer to transport funds and valuable items as they will be delivered momentarily without any interruptions. And collectively for the aforementioned industries, it will be much quicker and easier to transport workers and business executives to and from meetings and business conferences.
I believe the impact of this road will extend to social and cultural. For example, the work culture will simply evolve to accommodate workers from other towns or cities to commute. Distance won’t be a barrier for workers seeking opportunities far from where they live. With the economic boom brought about by this road there will be more money for the middleclass to spend. And there will be enough leisure time as people are less likely to be stuck in traffic. Finally, the society will be safer as emergencies will be handled a lot quicker. Emergences like firefighting, medical and the overall security of the society.
Of course, where there is human civilization in terms infrastructure development environmental impact exists. Some habitants for certain species will be destroyed in the process of clearing some sites for construction. And some creatures will be killed in the process disturbing some food chains in that particular ecosystem.
Deforestation is one of the major causes of climate change. In the act of constructing the road a lot of trees will be cut down. It’s bit of a sacrifice needed to get some of the benefits in the near future. Though future generations won’t have the trees they need to bring them enough rain: they will have a good mode of transport to build upon. The impact on the environment is not all negative because the building of bridges will help facilitate the flow of water hence making survival easier for some water species.
We can see that the positive impacts of this road exceed the negative impacts. There is an emergent need for this road to be completed to enjoy some of the drastic positive changes. And it shows the good leadership the country has; as the government is capable of executing rather than just making promises. Once you want to tour Zambia it will be easier to take you to the places you desire with any conflicts.