Linden/Kwakwani access road in deplorable state – residents

Kwakwani residents of the community in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) blame inexperienced contractors and inadequate funding as the main causes of the continued deterioration of the Linden/Kwakwani access road.
Once again calling for urgent work to be carried out on this access road, which they deem “a burden”, those residents told this publication that the condition of the road is a sore point to commuters, those living in the area, and visitors to the community. They note that the rainy season brings them additional woes in regard to using the road.
This publication was told that it normally takes three hours to travel either way from Linden to Kwakwani, but during the rainy season, it takes about five to six hours to commute either way, because of the deplorable state of the road.
Guyana Times was also told that when potholes develop on the road, rather than effecting a proper repair job, the potholes are filled with loam and sand; thus the potholes would become even bigger when logging trucks traverse the road.
One resident of Kwakwani, beauty queen Malika Russel, detailed her plight to this publication. According to Russell, she had been travelling on the road for many hours when she sustained injury as the bus in which she was travelling ended up in one of the many ditches on the road.
She related that her teeth penetrated her tongue, and she consequently had to be rushed to the hospital, where a part of her tongue had to be removed as a result of her injury.
The young woman noted that the road is in deplorable condition, and has been that way for a considerable period of time.
However, Charles Thom, a Councillor of the Kwakwani Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), told this publication that only one section of the road is in deplorable condition. Thom explained that there currently are eight major holes in the road, and those “can be worked on.” He explained that the contractors who are retained to repair the road are “not good”, hence the road continues to deteriorate after each episode of rehabilitation.
According to Councillor Thom, as he marvelled at the present deteriorated state of the road, the last time the road was fixed was prior to this current rainy season.
However, the councillor revealed that the entire road is not in a bad state, because seven miles of its stretch have recently been rehabilitated.
“The road needs to be whipped up with a bulldozer, but we need good contactors to do the work properly,” Thom noted. He noted that, throughout the years, funds have been continuously provided for the road to be repaired.
Residents are not the only ones expressing disgust at the state of the road, transporters who utilize the road to transport millions of dollars’ worth of forestry products and other resources are also complaining of the destruction being done to their vehicles. According to these transporters, it seems as if the Government does not recognise that the road is important to the economy, hence substandard works continue to be carried out on it.