Over 200 residents of Bartica, Region Seven yesterday dug a ditch across the Bartica/Potaro Road, cutting off access to the interior to protest the road’s deteriorating state.
Regional workers later re-filled the road and traffic resumed, Region Seven Chairman Gordon Bradford told Stabroek News, after the protest action at Two Miles, Bartica/Potaro road.
The road has deteriorated with increased traffic since the three-week protest in Linden, which has led to it being used as a more costly alternative to get to interior areas such as Mahdia and Mabura.
Resident Micha Williams told Stabroek News yesterday morning that just before daybreak, the ditch was dug by a number of residents who assembled at the roadway to protest its state.
Residents dug up an underground pipe used for drainage purposes and also set tires alight in the ditch, forcing all vehicles on the road to stop. “The road has been bad for a long time but has been ignored while emphasis was placed on the road leading from Linden and now they have to come back to the same road,” Williams said.
Williams said that they were told that there was no budgetary allocation this year for the repair of the road but with the increased traffic -consisting of mostly huge trucks – it has gotten worse. He said that at least one person was arrested by the police, who came out in their numbers to monitor the situation.
Another resident told this newspaper that it is unfair and stressed that more attention should be paid to this road since it leads to several interior locations.
Williams added that in addition to the Linden situation, traffic on the road has increased because the steamer transports goods to Bartica every day. While the ditch was later filled, he said once the rain fell it would be washed away, since no alternative drainage system was put in place.
Meanwhile, Bradford admitted that “a lot of the traffic has been directed through Bartica,” while explaining that residents, particularly those living between One and Five Miles, have been dissatisfied with the poor state of the road, despite several contracts having been awarded for repairs over the years. The last contract to be awarded was last year December, he noted.
Sometime back, Bradford noted, the minister of local government promised residents that the issue would be addressed. Following yesterday’s development, he said he spoke with the Regional Executive Officer, who was in contact with the Ministry of Public Works, which promised that action would be taken to fix the road. Works Minister Robeson Benn could not be reached for a comment on the situation yesterday.
Bradford said that regional officials will continue to monitor the situation.
