A CONTRACT is expected to be signed soon for the rehabilitation of the Ituni-Kwakwani road, A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament, Audwin Rutherford announced on Friday, but residents say what is needed is a permanent solution to this age-old problem.

Though the road underwent repairs in April, it is now back in a deplorable condition. Several sections of the road which stretches from Linden to Kwakwani are almost impassable. In the past, it took residents approximately two hours from Linden to Kwakwani but the journey is now four to five hours. Ituni and Kwakwani are located in sub-region two of Region 10.

When he addressed a ceremony on Friday to mark Guyana’s 52nd Independence Anniversary in Kwakwani, Rutherford, though not disclosing much, told residents gathered that a contract is expected to be signed soon.
In a recent interview with Guyana Chronicle, sub-region two Assistant Regional Executive Officer, Leola Narine, who is stationed in Kwakwani, said the road ever so often offers a ‘horrifying” experience.

According to the REO (ag), the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and the Public Infrastructure Ministry, based on experts’ advice, a medium to long-term solution should be developed to tackle the issue.

Narine further noted that in the past, three engineering companies assessed the Ituni/Kwakwani road, but results of those assessments were never made public.
She is now calling for an engineer’s assessment to be done by the Public Infrastructure Ministry, and for the results to be made known.

“What I am suggesting is that we need professional work to be done on the road…. The road needs to be built to facilitate logging trucks; it needs to be built with drainage so during the rainy season the water can easily run off the road. There is drainage at certain parts of the road… but I think a proper job needs to be done with the Ituni-Kwakwani road,” the REO (ag) posited.

Narine said that she has taken stock of the road works done in Mahdia, Region Eight.
“When I saw Mahdia got concrete roads, I commented on my Facebook and said minister please don’t forget the Ituni/Kwakwani road, because we are suffering and I have been assigned since 2013 to Kwakwani, and that road has been in a terrible state for the past five years,” she told this newspaper.

According to Narine, she is aware that the Regional Chairman, Renis Morian, has written a number of letters requesting that the road be fixed as soon as possible.
Resident of Kwakwani, Jocelyn Morian, told Guyana Chronicle that it is time that the people of Ituni and Kwakwani be afforded a “proper road”.

According to Morian, in recent times, residents have seen some improvement but said there is much to be done. “Based on what we are seeing, there are efforts being made to have the road done properly… It is only now we are seeing that there is drainage being implemented.”

Alluding to the materials that are currently stock piled on the sides of road, the Kwakwani resident urged that they be utilised for the up-keep of the road.
“We know that there is nothing that can be done presently but when the dry weather was here, some effort should have been made to have the road done properly,” he posited.
Morian also expressed the view that the projects be done in sync with each other.
“The persons who are working on the road to create that drainage, they could have used some of that same material to full some of the pot holes, but we were told that the person who was doing the drain, they are only focussing on trains and the soaker way. So the materials are just left at the side of the road. The people of the sub-region continue to suffer because of the approach,” he said.