A mother and her two-month-old baby stumbled to the ground after struggling to traverse a deplorable roadway leading to an Amerindian Hostel, located at Seventh Avenue (between First Street and Third Street), below the Telecoms’ Hill.
A section of the road where the deep gully was formed
This is just one of the many painful and dangerous experiences residents have been enduring for months, as the main access road continues to rapidly deteriorate as the relevant authorities take their time to address the issue.
The roadway has been in a terrible state for more than four years, and it was only recently that it was upgraded prior to the Local Government Elections (LGE) which was held on March 18.
Residents explained that the road was widened and a drain was dug, but it was not properly done.
“We asked them to redo the drain as that was supposed to help drain the water so it would not affect the roadway but they didn’t,” one woman related to Guyana Times. Four months ago, residents began to complain of substandard work since the road started to erode significantly. “Don’t get me wrong. We are grateful they did some work as we have been asking for better access for almost five years now and nothing was ever done. However, even though we don’t expect paved roads and concrete drains, time and care should be taken to do a little better job so that the situation does not get worse,” a resident noted.
Today, the road has moved from bad to worse, with the formation a deep gully at the side of the trail.
And with the rainy season fast-approaching, residents are worried that the situation will only worsen.
“Well, like my taxpayers’ money not giving us good service or it ain’t got value. Or maybe we have to send for Uncle David to visit the hostel in this Heritage Month… We need to get better than this, we voted for better, for change, not to exchange one lampy pampy bureaucrat for an even worse one. They probably are going to wait until someone injures themselves badly before any work is done,” one annoyed resident expressed in a Facebook post.
Guyana Times was told that a contract was awarded for the rehabilitation of the road and that works should commence within the next two to three weeks. (Devina Samaroo)
