Story by Tamuka Charakupa
HEALTH service delivery, road maintenance and tillage services are set to improve in Mashonaland West after the province received five fully-equipped ambulances and 40 tractors, feeding into the country’s Vision 2030 aspirations.
The Minister of State for Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Marian Chombo commissioned and handed over the ambulances to the Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital and tractors to the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) this Friday.
While thanking President Emmerson Mnangagwa for facilitating the development to propel Vision 2030 targets, Honourable Chombo implored custodians of the equipment to put it to good use.
“As the Mashonaland West province, we celebrate the arrival of 40 tractors for RIDA from Belarus, facilitated by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The batch consists of 16 tractors for tillage operations and 24 for road and bridge maintenance in rural areas. This is from the batch of 300 tractors that were acquired from Belarus for RIDA as a whole. These tractors will be strategically placed throughout the province to improve rural road maintenance and agricultural production in line with the President’s vision of leaving no one and no place behind.
“This gesture is a significant stride towards taking this country to its vision of becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2030. This massive investment will also ensure that Mashonaland ‘BEST’ remains the nation’s breadbasket. The province had a depleted pool of ambulances and responding to emergencies was being compromised. The province also consists of one of the busiest road networks and has had its fair share of road traffic accidents. The ambulances are coming at that period when we normally receive an influx of visitors into the country and the province putting the province in a better position to respond to potential health emergencies that may occur.”
Mashonaland West Provincial Medical Director Dr Celestino Ghede expressed gratitude to government’s commitment to enhancing the quality of health care provision.
“The five ambulances are going to the Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital, Karoi District Hospital, Chegutu District Hospital, Sanyati Mission Hospital and Makonde District. Indeed, government embraces all, leaving no one and no place behind. We are also operating air ambulance service, but it has a 50 kilometer radius which means the additional ambulances are closing the gap ferrying our patients from all corners of the province. We have the busiest roads and with the festive season approaching, health services are at their highest demand,” Dr Ghede said.
The latest development dovetails government’s thrust of leaving no one and no place behind and now the onus is upon the beneficiaries to put the vehicles into good use.
