By ROGERS KALERO
DESPITE the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) allowing in more trucks following intervention from the Zambian government, the screening process at Kasumbalesa border was still too slow for the mounting number of trucks.
And authorities in Chililabombwe and Chingola are still grappling with congestion of foreign trucks in both towns resulting from the slow pace of screening of truck drivers for COVID 19 by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) authorities at Kasumbalesa border post .
The slow pace of screening had led to the reduction of trucks entering the DRC from the initial 600 trucks per day to between 200 and 300 trucks, thereby worsening the congestion and forcing the Chingola Municipal Council (CMC) to find a parking space for the trucks
This was because the long queues of trucks had reached Chingola and were now heading to Kitwe and had reached as far as Sabina Turn off
After the intervention from government, the number of trucks screened increased to 600 from 300 but even this was not enough to clear the back log of trucks stranded in various Copperbelt towns.
Chililabombwe Mayor Christabel Mulala said despite the increasing of trucks entering the DRC to 600 per day from 300 per day , the two towns were still grappling with the congestion because of some more trucks joining the long queues.
“Despite increasing the number of trucks entering the DRC to 600 per day , the congestion is still there because every day, there are more trucks joining the long queues. We are still grappling with this situation,’’ Ms Mulala said
She was however confident that the situation may improve in the next few weeks because of the increased number of trucks entering the DRC per day
“We are sure that this problem will come to an end. The most important thing is to expedite the screening and continue to increase the number of trucks entering the DRC,’’ she said
More trucks allowed into DRC, but…
