The Alliance for Change (AFC) yesterday said that the state of some of the country’s roadways is of concern given the fact that large sums of money are being paid to contractors to do the works.
Region Eight Chairman Mark Crawford told reporters at the party’s weekly press conference that residents there are fed up with the state of the roads. He later displayed a number of photographs that showed in some cases roads which are impassible. In addition to having numerous pot holes which were filled with water, they were also slushy.
Reading from a prepared statement he said that persons accessing the main services at Mahdia are forced to navigate through numerous potholes to get to their destination.
“The access roads to the Post Office, Police Station, GGMC Mines Office and the Hospital are all in a deplorable state”, he said adding that the Regional Democratic Council under AFC leadership had made submissions in their 2014 Budget for money to repair the inner Mahdia roads. However, the Finance Ministry refused to include allocations for these roads in the National Budget for 2014, Crawford said adding that instead what the then Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker did was to advise that miners undertake the repairs themselves.
“This is a slap in the face, not only to the RDC but to all residents and other persons who visit or have to access services at Mahdia”, Crawford said, adding that the Minister and the Government he serves is continuously asking miners to increase gold production and declaration as it had been recognized that gold in now the backbone of the country’s economy. “But, while the government is willing to collect the revenues earned from gold, they are unwilling to spend some of that same revenue to fix the roads in Mahdia, the central hub for gold mining in Region Eight”.
This, he said, is an eye pass to the people of Mahdia.
Meanwhile AFC MP Trevor Williams said that roadways within Regions One, Seven, Eight, Ten and in Diamond New Scheme are in a horrible condition.
“The AFC has noted the continued practice by contractors to construct poor and shabby roads and in the process collect millions of tax dollars”, he said, adding that the Auditor General continues to highlight these malpractices year after year but the PPP/C administration refuses to take action to hold contractors accountable.
The roadways within Region Ten, Linden through to Ituni and Kwakwani continue to pose “great danger to the lives of residents and passers-by alike”, he said adding that these roads can be rehabilitated very economically as laterite is found in large supplies in Ituni and Goat Farm and will make a better surface than the sand and loam which can only last in the dry season.
The Linden-Lethem road, Williams stressed continues to be in a “most appalling state” almost all year round. The residents of Region Nine are left to wonder if they are a part of the PPP/C’s development plans for Guyana.
The roadways within Regions One, Seven and Eight are also ‘horror paths’ and leave everyone to wonder what are contractors paid to do, he said. “It is most unfair and discriminatory to have our people endure such avoidable hardships in their daily lives”.
Williams stated that at the new Diamond Housing Scheme “the roads are in such a deplorable state that pedestrians have to pick their way along the parapet as potholes stretch across the entire width of the road.
With the intermittent rains, the crater like potholes pose a challenge even to motorists who take a gamble on which side of the pothole may be less deep”.
He said that the AFC recommends that the Government equip the RDCs with machinery and fuel to provide better maintenance and repairs to roadways and bridges. This, he said, will result in more benefits and development of human resources within communities and municipalities.
Williams also expressed concern at the many roads in the city that are being dug up to facilitate sewerage works.
