A project to construct a new wooden bridge over the Santantadibe river, and connecting Daunara village to Morutsha, Xuoxao, Ghabamochaa and Shorobe is nearing completion, and will be handed over to the Daunara community in due course.
This emerged during a site visit of the project in Daunara on Wednesday by the village leadership from both Daunara and Shorobe villages, among them Kgosi Boingotlo Nonyane of Shorobe.
The new bridge replaces the old one which is worn out and has become unusable. The project, is implemented and managed by Elephant Protection Society and funded by the Daunara Foundation.
Elephant Protection Society took the leadership of the two villages on a site visit to appreciate progress made so far on the project. The contractors of the project, Lodge Builders Botswana took the visiting delegation on a tour of the bridge where they assured that the project was implemented as per specifications from the Department of Water Affairs.
The contractor, also highlighted the safety measure of the bridge, and that the special requests made by the leadership of Daunara to put extra poles for pedestrians’ safety will be addressed in due course to allow for the time handover of the project.
Kgosi Boingotlo Nonyane of Shorobe, who led the delegation expressed satisfaction with the briefing from the contractors. He highlighted that the wooden bridge, like many others that link up the communities in the Okavango Delta is key for the movement of people, and goods and taking services to the people in the area. He said, there were two or three more bridges that have been completely destroyed by veld fires and need to be rebuilt, calling on potential funders to extend the same gesture.
Meanwhile the Project Manager for Elephant Protection Society Omphile Brown, said the project had progressed smoothly, adding that it was anticipated within the first two months of its anticipated three-month duration.
He revealed that Elephant Protection Society works with local communities and identifies the needs in those areas, and within the Daunara community they identified a project to replace the old wooden bridge with a new one. The society then convened consultative meetings with all the concerned stakeholders, that included village leadership, the Daunara Action Group and Daunara Foundation, North West District Council, Department of Water affairs among other. Having been given the approval to construct the bridge – the society sought funding which they managed to source from Daunara Foundation.
