While the majority of communities in Region Eight have not been severely affected by the countrywide flooding, roads have suffered extensive damage making travel very difficult to some of the remote villages, Regional Executive Officer (REO) Peter Ramotar says.
Numerous sections of the dirt roads within the Potaro-Siparuni region have either been washed away or have collapsed, forming large holes in some parts. Some bridges are also under water due to rising levels. Ramotar, however, said, the damage was “expected and understandable.”
“It’s dirt roads. Its mountainous areas. Naturally there will be damages after this type of rainfall,” he told Stabroek News yesterday via telephone. He said that the current state of the roads has affected travel between communities in the region. He said that while not impossible persons who are shuttling in supplies find it difficult to access communities in the region.
He said that El Paso, one of the communities severely affected by the flooding in the Region is completely cut off due to the condition of the road. He said officials haven’t visited the area recently because they are having problems on the access road to Mahdia from the Mango Landing crossing.
“The mountainous part of the road getting into Mahdia, there are some serious issues which we are trying to address in partnership with the contractor, business community and some level of cooperation from the Town Council. We are trying to fix sections of the roads because we are having some difficulty in relation to getting fuel and some foodstuff. Not any dire difficulties and some trucks are getting through,” he related, before disclosing that he had been traversing the Region during the past two months and is well aware of the condition the roads were in so it is of no surprise that they are in this state.
At this point, he said, nothing can be done to address this issue until the rain eases while indicating that the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) has already tendered contracts for repairs to be done at various section of the roads. However, he said, the damage done to the roads is quite extensive so he is expecting the Government to step in to assist with repairs.
Ramotar noted that the weather has been fairly normal during the past four days so he hopes the communities like El Paso that were under water have returned to some sort of normalcy. He disclosed that several communities located in the Pakaraimas have also been cut off but this is due to the overflowing Ireng River.
During a recent outreach, Ramotar said while those communities were on their list to visit, they could not do so as the floodwater on the road was neck deep and they could’ve only accessed those communities by boat but this was decided against due to the strong river current.
He added that most of the complaints they have received during their assessment was about the damage done to crops and livestock. He said that the data was collected and sent to the Civil Defence Commission.
Meanwhile, he said, the COVID-19 vaccination exercise within the region is ongoing and despite the difficulties and the terrain, medical teams have been travelling across the area to ensure persons are vaccinated.
As a result of most of the airstrips being waterlogged, many communities cannot be accessed by air and the medical teams are travelling on ATVs.
