AS I traverse the main public road from Charity to Supenaam, I saw a contractor patching the road which has sunk and has some potholes and the approach of bridges uneven with tar and quarry sifting making it bumpy and very dangerous for driving. This road was never maintained for the past 20 years. The regional administration of Region 2 allowed it to deteriorate to such an extent that some parts of the road are shifting to the nearby trenches, one area for example, is Queenstown.

Essequibians waited 28 years for this road and in 1993, the late Cheddi Jagan and first Minister of Finance Mr. Asgar Ally, met with residents at a public meeting at Damon’s Park and the road was finalised, The contract was awarded in 1993, to a Brazilian company Parapanema, because of inadequate maintenance and some lorries fetching more than the tonnage or cubic, the road has sunk.
This road needs to be re-surfaced with asphalt/bitumen by which it can glue or bind and mix with aggregate particles to create a smooth concrete base, not the material that the contractor has used on this road making it uneven and a hazard for drivers. It was reported that many fatal and minor accidents occurred after the patching of this bumpy surface.Essequibians are an intelligent and literate people who are possessed of a wide range of skills in road building and cannot be fooled with sub-standard work.
I would like to invite the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Robeson Benn and Minister of Local Government, Mr. Ganga Persaud, to visit these sub-standard roads and streets which is being built with millions of subvention dollars each year in Region 2. They must act urgently to remove the many so-called road-building contractors who have in the past been awarded contracts with taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. One of the most important of these is that the road does not last for six months and is riddled with potholes.
They must do so urgently. Notwithstanding the extensive news coverage given every day to the so-called progress, one of the most important challenges facing the government is a lack of qualified engineers and personnel, while inroad fabrication infrastructure is threatened. We see the need for high-level and qualified road engineers with integrated thinking about road-building issues that can save the government billions of dollars for the next 100 years.
We are faced with the same reality year after year with sub-standard road and streets, in today’s changing world; we recognise that our main roadway is vitally important to the safety, well-being and quality of life in the Essequibo region.

MOHAMED KHAN