It has been six weeks since a section of the main entrance of Festival City, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown was cordoned off and a drain, measuring some six feet in depth, was excavated to channel water from the nearby trench.
The Festival City entry road remains blocked owing to the unfinished drainage works
Now, residents are calling on the Public Infrastructure Ministry and other authorities to look into the matter, since they cannot traverse the roadway. They also informed that contractors have been moving at a slothful pace, much to their discomfort.
One resident, Joseph Godfrey informed Guyana Times on Wednesday that the situation was distressing. He had believed that the road would have been accessible in a short time, but realised that this was not the case after waiting for over one month. The road was split completely to allow water from the trench to flow to the other side. This was followed by other works to fix the drainage system.
“The issue is that the main road into Festival City has been cut and a drain is now across the road. That road has stayed like that for the past six weeks. Cars can’t pass. They got to drive around. They were trying to drain the trench from one side of the road to the one on the other side. It can’t happen, because I live not too far away and this has been going for weeks. I didn’t really want to report it, but now nothing happening,” he stated.
For vehicles to enter the community, drivers are tasked with using another street, which is supposed to be the exit route. This publication made a subsequent visit to the area, where the road was cordoned off and inaccessible to motorists. Debris from the excavation work was piled along the side of the road and the drain was almost filled with sand.
Meanwhile, other persons in the community lamented that with these drainage works in place, they were still facing constant flooding after heavy rainfall.
After the first quarter of 2019, over $163 million in drainage works were announced throughout the capital city. The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) had confirmed that contracts were approved for the cleaning of the city’s drainage channels, with manual cleaning operations totalling $71.9 million and mechanical cleaning operations totalling $91.6 million.
