Road conditions aiding bandits to rob citizens

Aug 13, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Recently, I became yet another victim of an early morning armed attack where robbers waylaid me on Sussex Street near the King Edward Street cross lane. As a Christian, I try to be as generous and considerate to my fellow Guyanese, including those who destroy or seek to devalue human trust. But my major concern at this time is to relate the impact and social distress that has been occasioned by what can only be termed as the enabling environment that emanates from the deliberate mismanagement of the Georgetown City Council elites; and those who by their actions collaborate with the process of oppressing the ordinary people.
The first issue could be identified is the security and safety of female workers particularly who by the nature of their job are obliged to travel unescorted to and from their dwellings that are part of the La Penitence or Ruimveldt housing schemes and negotiate the walk through (actually a roadway) that bisects the Le Repentir Cemetery. Recall the gruesome, horrific rape/murder of a female security minder during last year, that heinous act has served to intensify insecurities within Albouystown, in particular, for a number of reasons over and external to the type of stereotype/image this part of Georgetown has been linked with for decades.
However, despite the complaints and appeals to Action Line, numerous unreported crimes involving either seniors or other so called “soft targets”, are as frequent as these are traumatic. It is almost a pastime to blame “de police, or the “govament”, or sometimes the hapless victims. Seldom are the real culprits, those who have the responsibility to maintain safe and sustainable roads and pathways identified and called out for their misdeeds and incompetence.
The other and perhaps related social/insecurity issue has to do with the state of the Albouystown roads including the entire James Street as well as the cross lanes of Callender, Curtis, Non Pareil, Bel Air, Cooper Streets, etc. These surface roads are located in a predominantly mixed ethnicity community where street vagrancy is, at times, a problem. During the years of the past administration, considerable attention was paid to ‘nicing’ up Albouystown starting with the works to celebrate Guyana’s Jubilee. Then, there were interventions of GWI under the direction of the then CEO, Dr. R. Van-West Charles. The roads were dug up on both sides to lay pipelines, which were laid for the installation of new water metres. But that was all which was done leaving the roadways in a decrepit state, and potholes that are expanding wider. There seemed to be no structured programme for this event. The re-operationalisation plan for the dormant fire hydrants is not foreseeable.
However, as to be expected the mainly loam/sand overlay for whatever work was done by GWI crews and contractors (subsequent to excavating previously bitumised materials) just lays over the road surfaces and this has proven to be hazardous with the cyclic floods. One only has to attempt to drive through the community to see clearly what has occurred. The small caves or potholes form a pattern that travellers must negotiate from hole to hole and avoid accidents at the same time as one is forced to use the wrong lane on occasions. The thieves, therefore, have a field day. They ride unmolested on the verges even in a one-way street, they wait on the intended victim to slow or pause and, therefore, immediately attack and steal valuables – mainly cell phones, jewellery and purses with keys, documents and so on.
Editor, it is this situation that at times causes the burning of tyres and other acts of people’s frustration.

Respectfully yours,
Worried citizen of Albouystown

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