A woman was forced to give birth on the roadside after extensive damage by heavy rains rendered roads leading to clinics in the Mkhulamini area impassable, halting operations.
Mkhulamini is located on the outskirts of Manzini under the Kukhanyeni constituency.
The situation was confirmed by Mkhulamini Bucopho (Constituency Councillor), Nkululeko Magongo, who said the persistent rainfall had severely affected access to health facilities in the area.
According to Magongo, nurses from Mkhulamini and Bhekinkhosi clinics returning from leave were forced to turn back after failing to access the facilities due to the poor state of the gravel roads. He explained that feeder roads, including Vusweni, Maliyaduma and Ticantfwini, had become completely impassable following the heavy downpours.
“The roads, which were once dusty, have turned into deep gullies. There was simply no way for the nurses to reach the clinics,” said Magongo.
He said as a result, the inkhundla council resorted to using their private vehicles as makeshift ambulances to transport patients to nearby health facilities using alternative routes. Magongo said many patients had gathered at the clinics seeking medical attention, only to find that services were unavailable due to the inaccessibility of the roads.
He added that their ikhundla council vehicles sustained significant damages while navigating the deteriorated roads in an effort to transport patients to nearby health care facilities.
Due to the severity of the situation, Magongo revealed that a woman was compelled to give birth on the road while being transported to another clinic.
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He noted that it was fortunate that schools were currently closed, as the situation would have been far worse had they been operational. However, he said under normal circumstances, classes were frequently disrupted, as many pupils and teachers were unable to reach schools because of the poor road conditions.
Magongo said pupils and teachers who live far from schools often missed several days of classes, while those who manage to attend were forced to walk distances of more than three kilometers.
“The reality is that there are no longer accessible roads in this area. Pupils, teachers and nurses are often forced to turn back home on rainy days due to the deplorable state of the roads,” he said.
Meanwhile schools commonly affected by the poor road infrastructure during the rainy season include Malunge High School, Kukhanyeni High School, Seven Holy Founders Primary School, Salukazi Primary School and Kukhanyeni Primary School to name a few.
On another note, Magongo added that the impassable roads during rainy days were not only causing a headache to nurses, learners and teachers, but to small business owners as well, particularly farmers.
He highlighted that some of the farmers were contracted to the National Agricultural Marketing Board (NAMBoard) and during rainy days; they were unable to transport their produce to NAMBoard as per the terms of their contracts as a result of the impassable roads, a situation which resulted in a very serious financial loss to them.
