Residents of Port Kaituma yesterday intensified their protest action blocking more sections of the community’s road network even as government announced that remedial road works costing between $20M to $30M are expected to start within the next 48 hours.
Only the critical areas including the parts with big holes will be looked at.
Minister in the Ministry of Local Government, Norman Whittaker during a press conference yesterday made it clear that the rehabilitation of the roads was on the agenda but its start was delayed by bad weather.
“These works were planned, they were on our programme. It is the weather conditions. Our experience has been you try to fix these roads in inclement weather conditions (and) they last a few months and that is hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money going down the line”, he told reporters.
Whittaker said that residents numbering about 50 have been protesting the condition of the internal roads in that area. He said the Region One administration, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, have all identified specific areas of internal and main roads in Region One that are in need of extensive rehabilitation and upgrading which he noted is best done in sunny weather conditions.
“Even though the people may want you to do it at a specific time our experience has been that it is a waste of taxpayers’ money when you try to do work during the rainy weather and that has been a contributing factor to the fact that we have been unable to do anything other than remedial works in the entire region since the commencement of the year”, he said.
According to Whittaker, there are some critical areas that have been identified by the region that are to be done urgently. He added that the Reunion Manganese company has been doing some remedial works on sections of the Matthews Ridge road and along the roadway leading to the Port Kaituma area. These works were on the agenda.
The remedial work which includes patching big holes should start within the next 48 hours, he added.
Residents told Stabroek News yesterday that they will continue their protest action until works start on the road. One resident said that tyres and other material were used to block the road leading to the airstrip. Several other roads in the community were blocked and protestors went as far as the Toll Booth at Four Miles.
