No proper resurfacing of Essequibo roads being done

Dear Editor,

As I traversed the main public thoroughfare from Charity to Supenaam, I saw a contractor patching the road which has sunk, which has some potholes and where the approaches to bridges are uneven. He was using tar and quarry sifting, making it bumpy and very dangerous for driving. This road has not been maintained for the past 20 years; the regional administration of Region Two allowed it to deteriorate to such an extent that some parts are shifting to the nearby trenches ‒ for example, Queenstown Village.

Essequibians waited 28 years for this road, and in 1993, the late Cheddi Jagan and first Minister of Finance Asgar Alli met with residents at a public meeting at Damon Park and the road was finalized, The contract was awarded in 1993 to a Brazilian company, Paranapanema, but because of inadequate maintenance and some lorries carrying more than the tonnage permitted, the road has sunk.

This road needs to be resurfaced with asphalt/bitumen which can glue or bind and mix with aggregate particles to create a smooth concrete base, not the material that the contractor has used.

It was reported that many accidents occurred after the patching of this bumpy surface. Essequibians  are an intelligent and literate people who are possessed of a wide range of skills in road-building, and cannot be fooled with substandard work.

I would like to invite the Minister of Works, Mr Robeson Benn, and Minister of Local Government, Mr Ganga Persaud, to visit these substandard roads and streets which are being built at a cost of millions of dollars each year in Region Two. They must act urgently to remove those so-called road-building contractors who in the past have been awarded contracts paid for by taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.

Sometimes the road does not last for 6 months and is riddled with potholes.

Notwithstanding the extensive news coverage given every day to so-called progress, the most important crisis facing the government is a lack of qualified engineers and personnel, that is threatening infrastructure. We see the need for high level and qualified road engineers with integrated thinking about road-building issues which could save the government billions of dollars over the next 100 years. We are faced with the same reality year after year with substandard roads and streets; in today’s changing world, we recognize that our main roadways are vitally important to the safety, well-being and quality of life in the Essequibo region.

 

Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan