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Vreed-en-Hoop NDC clears drains but creates another problem
Mud completely covers the parapets on New Road.
The Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) of Best/Klien Pouderoyen, West Coast Demerara has continued with its exercises of cleaning and maintaining the drains along the public road, and has continued to deposit the mud and slit from the drains on the side of the public road.
This time, the NDC is clearing the drains at the far end of New Road, just bordering the Harlem area. The mud and silt that have been deposited on the side of the road are once again causing the residents of the area serious concern.
Most of the silt and mud excavated from the drains and trenches have been deposited on the parapets of the public road, making it impossible to walk along the parapets. Due to this, residents are forced to walk on the road itself, and in doing so, expose themselves to the oncoming traffic.
One of the places where mud is being deposited is along a turn in the road which drivers often take at a high rate of speed. The speed and the lack of a parapet, due to the mud, make that section of the road very dangerous for pedestrians.
Further up the road, in Pouderoyen, similar cleaning exercises have left approximately three feet of the roadways covered in mud. This has hampered residents of the area, who say that they come out of minibuses and must step into the silt.
At one point on the road, a portion of the pedestrian crossing is covered in mud. This crossing is approximately 100 feet from a public school. The mud is also unsightly, and the residents say that it makes their community look very unkempt and untidy.
Kaieteur News had previously discovered that the contracts which the NDC awards for the excavation of the drains do not extend to the removal of the mud.
Chairman of the Best/Klien Pouderoyen NDC, Dhupan Persaud, when questioned about the removal of the mud, said that the mud cannot be moved until it had dried. He added that if anyone wanted the mud, they were free to remove it. The NDC, he said, was not paying anyone to remove the mud.
There are reports that the mud does not remain on the sides of the roads and the parapets for a long time. After some time, it eventually ends up in the drains from which it was removed. This is due to persons pushing it back in, or rainfall washing it back into the drains.
Residents of the area are happy that the drains are being cleared, but they have also made it clear that leaving the mud on the sides of the roads or on the parapets is unacceptable.
Commenting on the situation, the Chairman of Region Three, Julius Faerber, noted that it was acceptable for the mud, removed from the drains, to remain on the side of the road for a short period of time. At the same time, Faerber said that the removal of the mud often depended on whether or not the NDC has the funds available to undertake the task, which involves paying for another truck to cart off the mud.
Oftentimes, in other NDCs, when drains are cleared, a truck usually accompanies the excavator, to receive the mud, so it is not deposited along the roadways or parapets.
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