Dear Editor,
I refer to an article published in SN on Sunday 2019.09.01 titled `Perilous bridges, risky roads make travel a threat in South Rupununi.’
The article unfairly criticized the regional administration, and by extension, the government, over the state of the infrastructure in that part of the region, without even soliciting a response in relation to the claims made. A call to the Regional Office in Lethem would have provided you with a clearer insight that would have made the article balanced. Failing to hear the other side, your reporter did a dis-service to your paper.
The regional administration is always cognizant of the importance of inter-community links and has, since 2015, been engaged in ensuring that infrastructure serving that purpose is of the highest quality.
As it relates specifically to the bridge between Maruranau and Shea of which a photograph was published, I find it quite deceiving since that photograph was taken on the day that the bridge collapsed, some 5 weeks ago. I have attached an updated photograph that was taken three days ago, on Sunday 2019.09.01, the same day that the article was published. Had your reporter done due diligence, it would have been found that works were already ongoing. When the administration was informed of the collapsed bridge, instructions were passed immediately to the contractor rehabilitating a road nearby to effect repairs. That work was delayed by two weeks due to the incessant rains at the time. Work began in earnest as soon as the rains eased.
To further demonstrate our commitment to inter-community links, we had to completely build a bridge that was suspiciously burnt to the ground just before the rains started in April. That bridge linked Yupukari, Fly Hill, Quatata, Katoka, Semoni, Kaicumbay and Marakanata to Lethem. Failure to re-construct that bridge would have resulted in the more than 7,000 residents of those communities being cut off from Lethem and further afield.
The Councils of Nappi, Hiowa and Parishara, contacted the regional administration to lend assistance in constructing a bridge connecting their villages with their farmlands. The bridge was been done by self-help. The Regional Administration rented an excavator to assist the villages, and in the process opened up the connecting 2 km road to enable usage by vehicular traffic. That is the depth of our commitment.
To understand that commitment, one has to first understand the state of the region’s infrastructure as at May, 2015. Most of the infrastructure was of poor quality and they quickly deteriorated when the rains came.
Presently, the administration in collaboration with other agencies is in the process of rebuilding infrastructure. Some cases in point:
There are over 60 sanitary facilities in schools and Health Centres across the region that were never connected to any water source. We are now fixing those under the watchful eye of GWI. This begs the question: Why were these facilities constructed without access to water? They were completely useless.
In most villages wells drilled had failed because of faulty construction of both wells and trestles. These are now being fixed with assistance from GWI.
The road network was not spared from the slipshod syndrome that permeated prior to 2015. Presently, the road network is being redone with great assistance from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs. However, there will always be roads that would not be able to withstand the torrential rains and these will have to be repaired after the rains would have abated. That is the nature of the Rupununi.
In this regard, regional engineers have been scouring the region to ascertain the extent of the damage in an effort to have those roads and bridges repaired. The rains lasted from April, it is now September and they are now tailing off. Some areas will still be inaccessible and the engineers have been instructed to get to those areas even if it is by foot. That is the depth of our commitment.
Notwithstanding the above however, there is a mechanism that allows for timely information to be passed to the Regional Administration in relation to the state of infrastructure among other issues.
Along the corridor referred to in your article live three RDC Councillors. They are Douglas Cassimero and Petronella Michael of Aishalton in the South Rupununi; and Violet Cyril of Katu’ur Village in South Central Rupununi. They are all Councillors on the PPP/C side. They all have motorcycles or at least have access to such. Not on one occasion did they report on the state of the infrastructure mentioned in your article. That is their job, which was the purpose for which they were elected – to ensure the orderly development of the region.
One may want to question their motive of not reporting on the infrastructure since they had to be so aware. Nevertheless, officers in the field and alert residents of the respective areas did what these Councillors failed to do.
Again, in addition to breaching a basic tenet of journalism by failing to provide the regional administration with an opportunity to respond, your reporter did a disservice.
Yours faithfully,
Carl Parker
Regional Executive Officer
Upper Takutu/Upper
Essequibo
Editor’s note:
There was no requirement for Region Nine to be contacted before the publication of the news item. The infrastructure in question had been in this manner for some time and was observed by the reporter during the course of a visit to the region.
Contrary to Mr Parker’s claim that the photograph of the bridge between Maruranau and Shea was taken five weeks ago, the photograph was taken on August 24th. It is good to know that the bridge has since been put in working order.
Mr Parker was contacted on September 4th to comment on the state of the infrastructure referenced in the news item and he referred the reporter to the Public Works Department at Lethem.
