Next to the decrepit wooden bridge that leads into Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara are two piles of crush and run gravel. The small piles were supposed to fill the cavernous holes in the roadway but two months after they were delivered by the Ministry of Public Works following pleas by residents, they sit unused.
It is not an easy road to Garden of Eden. One resident told Stabroek News that the road, Second Dam, is the only entry and exit to this part of Garden of Eden which includes a new housing development located less than two miles along the roadway. “The road is unusable when the rain falls. We’ve been forced to cut through it to allow the water to move,” the resident who declined to be named, said.
“The Public [Works] Ministry promised 60 tonnes of crush and run and we said we would even do it ourselves, try and fix the road, but those two small piles is what they brought and just left,” he said adding that residents have had multiple meetings with the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and have even spoken to the Local Government Ministry about road maintenance. “They are building houses at the back of the road and this is the road the trucks need to use…the shops along here sometimes can’t get supplies because the truck drivers don’t want to damage their trucks coming in here,” the resident added. He said that most vehicle owners only used the road a little.
Furthermore, the resident asserted that the NDC has done nothing to stop the road from being continuously damaged and has only erected a barely visible sign prohibiting overweight and double axle vehicles. “They know that houses are being built in the back and they know that trucks are coming and going here and all they put up was the sign,” he said.
The resident pointed out too that the wooden bridge at the head of the roadway immediately off the highway is crumbling. Residents said it was normal for them to disembark their vehicles and walk because the state of the road is so bad that vehicles could not drive on it. One resident told Stabroek News that the bridge was rotting and the community was fearful that one day it would just fall apart. “This is the one road into and out of this scheme and that bridge is falling apart and nothing is being done. We were informed by the Local Government Ministry that it is in the budget for next year because this year the contractor died,” he stated.
“In case of emergency and that bridge falls down and the road is flooded what happens then? Nothing! People can’t get help, this isn’t something that can wait,” the resident declared. He said that at every turn, the NDC has made excuses, the Local Government Ministry has put the responsibility on the NDC and it was only the Public Works Ministry that partially delivered. Pointing at the crush and run gravel, he stated “look at that, they said 60 tonnes and that’s what they brought but at least it is something. But that could never do for the entire road.”
Another resident came out with his Ford F-150 truck to show that even a heavy duty vehicle could become stuck on the potholed road. “The vehicles are heavy, but if you don’t have big trucks you can’t travel this road, and they made a wooden bridge,” another resident said.
Garden of Eden residents are clearly frustrated that their pleas have been ignored. A resident said that road and infrastructure conditions were bad all across Guyana but that means little to the individual communities that are disabled because of bad roadways. “We know it bad here and so many other places, but if the government know it is bad then do something. We are willing to help and fix our own problem but we need the help and we need it now not next year,” one resident said.
