$100M allocated to facilitate Onderneeming access road

Residents of the sand mining community of Onderneeming Sandpit, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), who protested the deplorable state of their access road over the past three days, were assured on Sunday by Public Works Minister Juan Edghill that the roads will be fixed.
Edghill met with residents and truck drivers at Rooster Resort, where residents expressed their displeasure with the state of the roads. This prompted Edghill to have a first-hand look at the state of the roads.
He told the residents that a project of $100 million was allocated by the Government to rehabilitate the Onderneeming Sandpit access road. He added that as of today, the engineer and truckers will work together as a team in order to fill the deplorable road in the community.
Edghill noted that when the road starts to deteriorate, the team will continue to maintain it until the project is awarded for the construction of the access road which will be advertising soon.
“Work on the road will commence shortly. For the time, the road will be filled with loam and sand by truckers utilising the road to get their commercial business ongoing.
He added that he is cognisant of the situation and is aware of the effect it has on everyone, especially car drivers. The residents maintained that they had no other choice but to mount a protest action because their communities have been ignored for years.
Edghill, however, requested that they exercise patience as the extensive repairs will not be completed overnight. He noted that allocations were made for the construction of a new road to satisfy the residents and other persons utilising the road.
“We are just asking for you to be calm, we are just asking for your cooperation and things will get done,” the Minister told residents.
Derick George, a resident of Onderneeming Sandpit told Guyana Times that he has been living in the village for over 12 years and the road is always in a deplorable state.
“We received promises years ago and yet nothing has not done … We the residents would like the road to fix as soon as possible. When I was an NDC Councillor I worked with the Chairman for the past five years to get the road repair but nothing was done,” George said.
George also told this newspaper that Regional Chairman Vilma De Silva along with the Regional Vice Chairman, Humace Oodit, had engaged residents during the second day of the protest and promised that loads of sand would be placed on the road to commence repairs and maintenance.
Meanwhile, a trucker who owns a private sandpit in the community related that over the past three to four weeks he had assisted in the maintenance of the access road.

“This did happen, but as a result of the inclement weather, the aggregates were washed away and the road remains in the same state. However, during the protests that were staged by residents, we threw loads of loam and levelled it neatly. This will continue whenever the aggregate is wash away again,” the trucker told Guyana Times.
The residents, however, bemoaned the action which stemmed from a trucker and a car driver, who they claimed had a confrontation on Friday. This upset the residents who then decided to barricade the bridge, denying trucks entry into the community.