Tourism stakeholder joins call for Lethem-Linden road rehabilitation

Tourism stakeholder, Visit Rupununi, have joined the chorus of voices including truckers and minibus drivers decrying the lack of maintenance and resulting deterioration of the Linden-Lethem road.
Along with over 20,000 Rupununi residents and those of the Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), Linden and other areas, the stakeholders are calling for immediate attention to be given to the rehabilitation of the roadway.
According to reports, tourism operators are also complaining of the significant damage to vehicles caused by the continuous deterioration of the road, coupled with the increase in fuel prices.
It is being reported that since the May/June rainy season ceased, the road is now transformed into a mire of mud and stuck vehicles, with residents of the Rupununi starting to gird for shortages of fuel and other basic commodities.
Municipal efforts have been dispatched to investigate the worst of the degradation,

but little has to date been done to solve the problems.
According to Visit Rupununi, already the stories of people and goods stranded in the road for days at a time abound and the costs of repairs, lost assets, time and even life continue to mount.
This has also adversely affected the thriving shopping tourism sector in Lethem which reportedly sees arrivals of visitors from Brazil via the Takutu Bridge as high as 200,000 per month, which has been responsible for the commercial growth seen in recent years.
The tourism stakeholder added that with two months of rainy season still to go even with a moderate to good flooding, this vital pathway to Guyana’s interior is likely to be cut off for at least some portion of the remaining rainy season to the detriment of the region’s population.
On Friday, Visit Rupununi noted that the remnant of road that is likely to emerge when the waters finally recede will be significantly damaged, crippling commerce, inhibiting the movement of people and resulting in significantly higher transport and operation costs into 2019.
Locations such as Iwokrama, Surama and Lethem which usually look forward to the trickle of domestic and Diaspora travellers during the July-August months to keep their doors open are already reporting that the current road situation has had a devastating impact on bookings.
According to President of Visit Rupununi, Melanie Tuck, to salvage the coming tourist season, road and bridge repairs needs to start with immediate effect, keeping commodities moving and reducing down time come September.
“Collaborative solutions must be sought to facilitate affordable air travel direct to popular locations across the Rupununi. Policy review needs to be fast tracked to facilitation the installation of a regionally based air carrier, removal of VAT on internal flights and incentives for airlines to service key tourism locations, especially those in the North Rupununi need to be affected in time to meet the September demands,” Tuck expressed.
Tuck added that this current road condition is the worst that the region has seen in almost a decade, eroding the progress made over the last 20 plus years in bringing Guyana’s tourism industry to the international market and forcing existing operators into potential financial jeopardy with higher operational and transport costs to honour tourism commitments which were confirmed in many cases six to 12 months in advance.
As such, the President along with those being severely affected are making a final plea for emergency repairs which they stated were needed to safeguard the continued movement of people and supplies and avoid the accompanying loss of income.