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Diamond roads in shambles
– residents and taxi-drivers complain
Residents in the Diamond/ Grove Housing Scheme, East Bank of Demerara are complaining of lack of proper infrastructure which is affecting progress in the area.
One of their main grouses is with the condition of the roadways, particularly in the area in which residents have paid $1M each for a house lot.
Upon receiving numerous complaints by affected residents, Kaieteur News visited the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Streets of Diamond Housing Scheme, which is commonly identified as the “million dollar houselot section”.
Some in the Second and Third Streets identified sections of these streets which had huge holes that would usually be flooded whenever it rained. Most taxi drivers would refuse to carry passengers in these streets during the rainy periods.
In Fourth Street, there was an enormous pothole at the front half of the street and one resident who gave her name as Sheila told this newspaper that car-drivers would frequently divert from the affected half of the street and have to “drive all the way around” to access the rest of the street.
Fifth Street seemed to be in the worst condition.
Although there was no heavy rainfall for the past week, the area between Fifth Street and its first cross street had such a huge, water-filled pothole, making it appear as if the village had just experienced a heavy downpour.
One taxi-driver was seen struggling to make his way across the flooded, damaged road but could not succeed as the hole was so deep and filled with water that it almost covered his wheels. He had no choice but to reverse and find another accessible route to get to his destination.
“The streets being like this are such an inconvenience,” he said. “New roads building but what happening to the ones that already here and need attention?”
A young couple explained that they recently moved to the area and are finding it a “nuisance” to have to travel when the roads and streets are in such deplorable states.
A taxi-driver tries to make his way through the badly damaged Fifth Street of the Diamond Housing Scheme which persons are complaining is “an inconvenience” to passengers, residents and taxi-drivers.
They told this newspaper that they own a car and have “a hard time driving through the street” and as a result, sometimes they just use public transportation because “it is too much of headache to drive”.
And one “short-drop taxi drivers” who would take passengers into the scheme said that he was “fed-up” with having to take passengers in streets that had huge holes and his vehicle was being damaged.
Another explained that to avoid any inconvenience or damages to his vehicle, he simply refuses to take passengers through those “forbidden streets” whenever it rains.
He said that he “learnt the hard way” as one night he was taking a pregnant woman to the back of Fifth Street and his vehicle became stuck.
After almost one hour in the dark area, he managed to get his vehicle out, not before grazing underneath and causing some “expensive damages”.
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