I am asking the central government, regional government and the village council, since none seems to know who is responsible, when will the roads in Eccles BB section be repaired? These roads are damaging our vehicles. They feel like the pre 1992 era, like the rest of the country is beginning to feel. I travel across to the West Demerara once a week. On every occasion, workmen are welding the plates on sections of the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
There is a crew of at least four persons working on one spot on one plate. This is simply a waste of resources and this patchwork is going to cost even more over time. The surface of this bridge, which is made up of steel plates now coated with bitumen, is deteriorating rapidly. It is only a matter of time when these plates, rising in places in a dangerous manner, cause severe destruction to some vehicle or even loss of life.
Why can’t the responsible authority import the necessary plates from the same company providing the plates for the Berbice Bridge and systematically replace all the metal plates on the Demerara Harbour Bridge? This is necessary even if the bridge is going to be replaced at a later date. Any new bridge is likely three to four years in the future and that is being optimistic.
Any new bridge should be built further downriver, possibly near to Timehri, then build a connecting road to the West Bank road. We need three major highways, one from Ogle or Sophia going south to the Linden highway, another continuing from the Linden Highway on the other side of the Demerara River going west to a point midway between the Demerara River and the Essequibo River, then another highway north to south, linking the new east to west highway to the west coast road. This would open vast tracts of land for industry and population shift. This or something similar must be considered. It would show growth, promote national pride and most of all provide room for further economic development which includes jobs. If we are to seriously attract the Caribbean islanders to invest in agriculture here, this is absolutely necessary. We should even work out some mechanism where the islanders contribute to paying for this infrastructural development.
Lastly, we need to regulate the conditions in which agricultural machinery traverses the roadways. Farmers will possibly need to invest in portable water pumps and remove the large amount of mud that accumulates on the machinery before entering the roadways. This will probably be seen as a nuisance but we cannot continue with business as usual. These large clumps of mud covering large sections of the roadways are dangerous and will continue to result in loss of life.
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Singh
