ROAD development has expanded from mud dams to rigid pavements, concrete roads, and upgraded bridges, with each community in every region benefitting from improved infrastructure.
In a recent interview, Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill, said the development had been delivered without discrimination, with infrastructural projects reaching communities regardless of their location.
“We have been able to make interventions, and I want to make this clear, in each and every village in each and every region. And I have said this before, we have delivered development without discrimination. So, I consider that to be the second most significant achievement,” he said.
He added that more than 10,000 roads and community projects had been undertaken and the government’s approach had also focused on developing the capacity of small contractors, including them in the country’s modernisation process.
“When you’re dealing with 10,000 plus small contractors who are developing their capacity and taking them into the developmental process so they can become part of Guyana’s modernisation, it’s a challenge,” he said.
Thus, he criticised what he described as efforts on social media to focus on isolated defects in road projects rather than the broader infrastructural transformation taking place across the country.
Beyond road construction, the programme has included rebuilding bridges in communities where wooden and timber structures had deteriorated.
Walkways have also been constructed to provide safer routes for children travelling to school, reducing their exposure to traffic.
Moreover, the minister said the impact of these developments should not be measured solely by the number of kilometres of roads constructed or the volume of concrete used.
He said the more significant measure should be the difference the projects make in the citizens’ lives.
For residents, the changes are reflected not only in newly constructed roads and bridges, but in easier access to schools, businesses, services and neighbouring communities. (DPI)