Residents are still waiting for the Mahaica to Cane Grove Road to be fixed

May 04, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

The road from the Mahaica Market to Cane Grove serves as a main thoroughfare in this predominantly agriculture area. It serves the communities of Belmonte, Supply, Vereeniging, Strathavon and Cane Grove. It is traversed by possibly thousands on a daily basis. All the farm produce from this vast agricultural area has to be taken on this road to access local and international markets. For a road of such importance, it is in a deplorable state. With the current rainy season, the situation has worsened. In some sections, multiple potholes stretch over twenty feet. It is hard to believe a main road of such significance is unpaved stretching from Strathavon to Cane Grove and the entire Vereeniging section. There is a portion in the Belmonte area that is only loam and is subjected to high tides when water flows underneath the levee from the Mahaica River and swamps that area. This road, was being prepared for repaving in 2014 under the PPP administration and upon the APNU assuming office in 2015, works were abruptly terminated. It is over six years now that no maintenance or proper road works were done. In the rainy season, the loam turns to slush, in the dry season, the loam blows into people’s home with each passing vehicle. Imagine going to work wearing high heels or black shoe and walking though the slush of loam. This problem with this road is not new. I can remember as a student doing my Geography SBA on Road Transport in 1995, during the field trip on the road, the Oxford Morris motor car kept bouncing up and down the road with its hood rattling away, our teacher turned and said to the driver, ‘like this car eat peppa bai.’ That was 25 years ago. Minister, Cathy Hughes, visited the area to solicit votes for the last local government elections and when quizzed on road works in this area, her response was, “People don’t pay their taxes and so money to do the works is scarce.” The people of Mahaica can never pay that amount of taxes to carry out the extent of works needed. Last December, Hon. Minister, Juan Edghill, made a bold promise of urgent road works from Mahaica to Cane Grove after conducting an assessment himself. Almost five months later and the passage of the national budget there is no word on when the road will be fixed. Daily, there are tenders for road works all over the country; we have waited almost six years – how long more must we wait for such an important issue to be addressed in our community?

Yours truly,
B. John

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