Road users urge President to intervene

Linden-Lethem road condition

Even as the minibus operators who ply the Mahdia to Georgetown route were forced to park their buses due to the deplorable condition of the only access road, road users on Wednesday took to social media calling on the President and Ministers responsible to intervene in order to bring a long-term solution to their plight.
A bus operator, whose minibus was stuck on the trail for several hours on Wednesday morning, posted a video of the dilemma and blasted the Government for their clear lack of concern or interest in the citizens of this country.
The man, (name withheld) lambasted Government for heavy taxes they are enforcing on citizens and questioned what is being done with taxpayers’ monies.
“What y’all doing with the taxpayers’ money? It is not right; this is an injustice to humanity for the Ministers to be enjoying the benefits of taxpayers’ money while the taxpayers suffering tremendously. There is no consideration for the people,” he argued.
He urged the relevant authorities to seek new ways of tackling this issue and suggested that they offer contracts to small contractors, giving them responsibility for sections of the road and holding them accountable for ensuring the job is done and maintained at a proper standard.
“They should consider this and make sure the contractors put a visible signboard with all relevant information so people will see who is doing the work and give and they should give a warranty. It would seem as if it’s a conspiracy with these contracts,” he added.
The operator called on the Public Infrastructure and Communities Ministers to look into the situation urgently while calling on President David Granger to use his office to address the wrongdoings in those Ministries.
“How long more we gotta suffer… I’m begging Mr Granger please use your office to see what is going wrong and what is going right and address it because there are more wrongs than right and because of these Ministers’ attitudes, development can’t come about,” the operator stated in the video.
Other minibus operators who ply the routes were forced to halt their services until the weather pattern and the state of the road improves. The road, according to the operators, is almost impassible as a result of the persistent heavy rainfalls.
On Monday, minibus owner Calvin Drakes told Guyana Times that his driver was forced to park the bus because the road had become worse over the past few days. This was the case with at least four other operators who said they cannot continue to operate given the circumstances.
Mayor of Mahdia, David Adams had said there have been no improvements in the condition of the road and although the rehabilitation of the road does not fall under his council, no works can be done due to the persistent rainfall.
Adams last week explained that during the rainy season, some attention needed to be paid to the trail between Mahdia and Mabura, which is in dire need of repair works.
He noted, however, that there are no plans in place for such rehabilitation works by the council.
The minibus operators, since last week, have complained bitterly of the deteriorating condition of the trail which they are forced to use to transport passengers and goods as a means of earning their daily bread.
They described the trail as a “death trap” and bashed the Public Infrastructure Ministry for paying zero interest in conducting long-term repairs to that trail which is the only access to those areas.
The trail has been in a deteriorated state for years and worsens during the rainy seasons after which minor substandard repairs are done on certain patches and the problem continues to recur.
To date, there has been no response from the Public Infrastructure Ministry to this issue and efforts to get a comment from Minister David Patterson proved futile.