Strategies for enhancing maintenance of rural roads constructed by donor funds: a case of Iringa and Ruvuma region

The poor condition of some of recently upgraded rural using donor funds with the reason of limited funds for road maintenance necessitates the study to be done. The study starts by investigating the existing arrangement of road maintenance. Also study analyses the possible strategies to be adopted by the Government to solve the problem especially on this donor funded road due to huge capital investment. Also validation was done for alternative strategies on road maintenance problem using A TQM framework. The study was carried out by collecting data from District staffs responsible for road maintenance in Iringa rural, Kilolo, Mufindi, Njombe, Songea rural, Namtumbo and Mbinga with following findings: firstly, about 61% of road was maintained for past five years using 52% of funds from Government Budget and the rest 48% accessed from donors. The study has recommended that the Government should look at the possibility of increasing the road maintenance fund, adapt a TQM framework to improve quality of road maintenance, involve the LGAs and the communities in road maintenance.