Despite millions spent on rehabilitation, main roads in several Linden communities are deteriorating and residents want government to examine the situation, saying that the recent frequent heavy rainfall due to La Nina phenomenon is making things worse.
The main access road to the Wisroc Housing Scheme; the road network at Block 22; the access roads at Blue Berry Hill and One Mile Extension; the roads at Wismar, at Dageraad Avenue, Mackenzie, Washer Pond, Amelia’s Ward, Retrieve, Speightland (Lower Kara Kara), Watooka, Fair’s Rust and Noitgedacht, are all in a deplorable state, according to residents, including motorists and bicyclists who say that complaints have not seen any action.
More than $100M in rehabilitation works have been done in less than five years, under the Linden municipality, the Ministry of Public Works and the Region 10 Administration, they point out, while also complaining about the poor standard of the works done by contractors.
“The main thing is the way they keep patching and reconstructing these roads without addressing the drainage situation,” a taxi-driver complained to Stabroek News. “No place in this world, except in Linden, contractors does be given all their monies before they done deh contract,” he said, adding that in many instances contractors are not penalized for shoddy work and residents are the ones who suffer in the long run.
Another opined that the situation is allowed to prevail due to under-the-table arrangements. “They does get these contract works with under-the-table deals; in most cases the people who gets these contracts have no background in road works but because of the skulduggery, in especially that corrupt region, they get deh money and then dose pay a pukapuka man a small piece for mess up things,” an angry around-the-town bus driver said.
Residents are particularly concerned about the potholed Watooka access road as it serves as the main entrance to the Linden Hospital Complex. Since the construction of the facility, very little or no attention has been paid to the road, which has been made worse due to the rains. “I remember good when dem deh opening this hospital; deh dash spread some stuff in front there because deh president de coming before dem deh done. That place was a total mess,” a resident said.
Several taxi-drivers have said that taking patients to the emergency entrance of the hospital is a sorry experience. “Not so long ago, I was bringing a pregnant woman to deh hospital and as God as meh witness, the rocking going though those holes deh lady deliver right in me car,” one of them told this newspaper.
Persons living in Watooka, Fair’s Rust and Mackenzie, especially those at Wisroc along Wismar, are suffering tremendously as buses and taxis are refusing to traverse the areas. Parents and teachers of children attending the Watooka Primary and nursery schools complain that the trek to the school often results in students’ shoes and clothes becoming soiled.
The state of the Washer Pond road is another issue of concern. The road was reconstructed into a dome hill design some years ago when OMAI was preparing to sell to the current owners of the Linden Bauxite Company, BOSAI. The road was rebuilt to facilitate the construction of a Washer Plant that runs from one end of the Washer Pond road into the bauxite plant at the other end of the road. During the rainy season the road turns into a muddy pond that is deteriorating the road and BOSAI workers are often seen washing the mud from the road.
“The time for playing politics gone long, we got to start getting value for our tax payers dollars, contracts got to be given to proper contractor who have the equipment and the know how to do these roads, bring back Seeram Brothers and lets get proper roads in dis place like certain other areas in deh country,” a concerned resident said, joining the call for government to take a serious look at the state of disrepair of Linden roads.
