An assessment of roads and bridges in the South Rupununi by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in Region Nine, which was reportedly delayed by the torrential rains, is expected to commence this week.
Lethem Public Works Department engineer Ulecia Bishop, in a brief comment, told Stabroek News that the assessment of the transport infrastructure in the South Rupununi was delayed by torrential rains for the past months, so the department was unaware of the present state of the roads and bridges.
Stabroek News recently reported on the poor state of the bridges and roads used by residents of the South Rupununi.
Bishop revealed that since the rains have significantly eased, a team from the RDC will be heading into the South to assess the conditions of the bridges and roads as early as this week. She further divulged that during the rainy season, they focused on schools and hospitals but not the roads since nothing could’ve been done at that time to improve the conditions.
The Community Development Officer for the South Rupununi, Ken Farias declined to comment when asked if he had reported the conditions of the roads and bridges to relevant authorities but confirmed that the travel infrastructure is in a “terrible condition.” “Yes, I am aware that they are in a terrible condition and yes they are in need of repairs but I won’t be able to talk about that to the papers,” he said.
Vincent Henry, the person in charge of Community Development Officers in the Region disclosed that he had heard about the conditions of the roads, but added that recent reports revealed that the conditions are “much improved.” He was to have left for the South Rupununi yesterday to also assess the conditions of the roads and bridges.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Walcott, the Hinterland Engineer at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, told this newspaper that due to the recent revelation about the poor conditions of the travel infrastructure in the South Rupununi, the ministry will be looking into the situation. Prior to the recent report published by this newspaper, Walcott revealed, the ministry was unaware of the situation in the South Rupununi but will now place its attention on the area.
Since the report by this newspaper, repairs on the Marurunau bridge were done.
The Toshao, Ambrose Bento, of Marurunau, however, was displeased about the works when Stabroek News spoke to him last month. Bento related that only the collapsed part of the bridge was being repaired and when he questioned the contractors why they weren’t repairing the entire bridge, they told him, they were only paid to repair half of the bridge. “So it will be half new and half rotten,” a displeased Bento said during an interview.
He revealed that the contractors arrived in late August to begin repairing a washed-away culvert between Marurunau and Shea and they began repairing the bridge soon after. In an earlier interview, he had revealed that the bridge had collapsed over a month ago and had since written a letter to the Regional Executive Officer (REO) seeking assistance to repair it.
