Four years after unsatisfactory repairs were done to fix Cinema Road, at Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara, residents say they continue to endure an eroding, potholed road that has affected life in the street.
When Stabroek News visited the village on Monday, a resident who has lived there for six years said that the two ends of the road were repaired about four years ago while other parts had been patched.
However, the patches quickly eroded after the rainy season and no work has since been done to refill them.
Another resident, who provided her name as “Kim,” said the deplorable state of the road affects garbage disposal as the dump truck now only collects waste on Saturdays, while others refuse to go there.
She added that taxis and minibuses also refuse to use the road and would instruct passengers to disembark at the head of the road, forcing them to walk to their residences.
In a letter published in Stabroek News’ January 29, 2013 edition, Timothy Alphonso Smith, Secretary of the Resident and Home Owners‘ Association, described Cinema Road as “nothing but a misery, torment and disaster” for them.
Smith, who lives at Cinema Road, noted that it is going on close to four years now since the residents have been begging for it to be properly fixed.
“The heavy rains have come yet again, and still nothing has been done to the middle section. Cinema Road is an absolute disgrace; taxis are now refusing to go there. What if it is an ambulance?
Or the fire brigade? Or the doctor or nurse? We constantly ask ourselves how did the highway maintenance team in their right mind ever think of doing both ends of Cinema Road, and leave out the middle section which is in such a state of disrepair, and then allow it to get worse over time,” he wrote.
He also said that for the residents of Cinema Road who own vehicles, it is a nightmare and that the expenditure for damage to their cars is enormous.
Smith told Stabroek News on Monday that he was told that material had been taken from the ‘line top’ to patch the roads, which soon deteriorated, with potholes becoming wider and deeper than they had been before the repairs.
He said residents had pooled resources and bought a quantity of red sand to fill the holes but that too was in vain as the unexpected rainy season washed it away.
