Dear Editor,
I must say that I am pleased to see all of the development projects currently undertaken countrywide and those projects that are on the table. The type of projects undertaken by the government can be viewed as heading in the right direction to improve infrastructure and ultimately the livelihood of Guyanese.
However, it is my honest opinion that many of these projects are done hastily and without proper vision or execution. What do I mean by this? Let us look at the new Mandela to Eccles highway, this is a great initiative and has proven to ease the EBD public road congestion, however, no one considered the exit road at the dumpsite for rehabilitation for the duration of highway construction. After the highway was opened, it had to be closed for development work on the dumpsite road. If you visit there today, you will see how much of a mess it is and the inconvenience it is causing to people in the area and users of the road.
Of course, now there are bypasses but if a thought-out plan was implemented from inception; we could have avoided many additional expenses. Another project, which is the one that prompted me to write this letter, is the New Fire Station in Peter’s Hall (Nandy Park). Again, great initiative but this project was not thought-out fully! Firstly, why would you want to put such a service in front of a nursery school on a road that is already busy and narrow? What happens when there is an emergency and parents are parked to drop kids off at school, how efficiently would the fire trucks be able to leave the station?
Secondly, the fire station was built at an elevated level right on the edge of the road and there is no provision for drainage of the water on the road. Prior to building this facility, there was always a water lodging issue there and no one took that into consideration. Why they did not consider putting some kind of drainage to keep the water flowing? Is this going to be another project? I have been checking this site and even when it is not raining for several days, there is still water lodged in the area because it has nowhere to go!
As I mentioned, I am happy about all the projects, but the Government of Guyana needs to ensure that each project is done with the proper vision and that all areas of concern be addressed because if we have to keep redoing projects, then it will be one step forward and one-step backward, no progress. There are many other projects we can talk about but I hope these two highlight the need for us to do better with designing current and future projects.
Sincerely,
Asif Sahid