Residents of the ‘GuySuCo’ Housing scheme at Turkeyen on the lower East Coast are calling on the relevant authorities to address concerns that they have been raising for well over four and half years now.
According to persons living in area, the roads have been in a deplorable state and efforts to have them addressed by the Ministry of Public Works and Mayor and City Council have proved to be difficult. Efforts yesterday efforts to contact officials of the Ministry of Public Works as well as those from City Hall were futile.
The main concern of the residents is the state of the roads in the area. At the moment, the roads are covered with loam and whenever it rains, they become extremely messy.
Added to this, sections of the road network in the scheme are slowly becoming impassable. The bad and unattended roads are often blamed for damage sustained by vehicles that traverse in and around the scheme.
In their quest to have the roads brought to a more acceptable standard, residents said they approached Transport and Hydraulics Minister Robeson Benn and City Mayor Hamilton Green, who both promised that the situation will be addressed. However, despite his promise at the time the mayor of the city had informed that the council was cash strapped and was not able to address the residents’ concerns at the time. Minister Benn made a promised to have the roads graded. He later sent in an engineer who then advised that the since the scheme is privately-owned, there was little that the ministry could do. That little was restricted to grading of the roads.
At that time the scheme was controlled by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo). The company used the area to provide senior managers and functionaries of the company with house lots. The area was then handed over to Mayor and City Council. The council has thus far maintained the scheme but to a limited extent.
Speaking with Stabroek News residents explained that their worst encounters are when it rains. This, they said, caused sections of the road to be submerged and persons walking out of the area have to hopscotch their way out because of the many pools of water.
The residents are contending that at one time they were forced to pay a private contractor thousands of dollars to grade and level the road. The fruits of that effort, however, were enjoyed only for a short time, as the road still sinks each time it rains. The residents are of the view that the initial road works in the area were shabbily done with the result being the discomfort of those who have to use them on a daily basis.
The roads in the area are also traversed by heavy duty trucks and other earth moving equipment from time to time.
