Flood preparedness: Bungoma allocates Sh24 million to rehabilitate collapsed bridges

Bungoma County Executive for Roads, Transport, Infrastructure and Public Works Bonaventure Chengek has said that the county government has embarked on rehabilitating collapsed bridges in Bungoma.

With the nationwide-ranging floods resulting from the heavy downpour, Chengek says that well-constructed bridges, managed drainage systems and well-combated roads will help address flood challenges.

Speaking to the press after inspecting the ongoing construction of a bridge that connects Khalaba and West Sang’alo wards on Wednesday, Chengek revealed that with the raging floods, a resident was washed away by the flooded river Khalaba.

“The move to have a new bridge here is a result of the death of a resident who was crossing after a heavy downpour I consulted with both our MCA’s and the governor and we decided to establish a new bridge to curb more deaths,” Chengek said.

The CECM also said that Bungoma intends to rehabilitate and improve 374 bridges in the entire county noting that Bungoma is a water catchment area saying that it is the reason why it has many bridges.

“Per year our budget allows us to construct 23 bridges but because we have many of them in Bungoma we shall try to rehabilitate and improve all of them,” Chengek added.

Chengek also affirmed that the county government is also working to rehabilitate the road network adding that Bungoma has 6,500 km.

He noted that per year the devolved unit plans to construct 400km of roads in Bungoma.

Cosmos Barasa, a resident, lauded the county government for allocating money for the construction of the bridge on the river Khalaba.

“Schools are about to resume and there are learners from the other side of the river . Those constructing the bridge should be fast to ensure it's completed before schools open for the second term,” Barasa said.