RALPH BAN­WARIE

Pas­tor Stephen Joe­hanston, of the Tamana Bap­tist Mis­sion Church, has made a spe­cial ap­peal to the Gov­ern­ment to do some­thing about the de­plorable road con­di­tions that ex­ist in the com­mu­ni­ty of Guaico, Tamana.

Pas­tor Joe­hanston made the ap­peal dur­ing a protest held by vil­lagers along the Guaico/Tamana Road yes­ter­day morn­ing.

He told Guardian Me­dia that he has been in the Tamana com­mu­ni­ty for the past six years and the cur­rent con­di­tion of the road­ways was the worst they had been dur­ing his tenure.

“We ap­peal to God to have those in au­thor­i­ty to do some­thing for this com­mu­ni­ty. As you can see, the con­di­tion here, we can have a bap­tism here in this wa­ter this morn­ing. It is that de­plorable. It is the dry sea­son and one can imag­ine what hap­pens in the wet sea­son, so please help us,” Joe­hanston said.

Coun­cil­lor for Guaico Tamana Anil Ma­haraj said be­cause of the poor road con­di­tions the peo­ple can­not get the ser­vices of an am­bu­lance or fire truck.

Chil­dren go­ing to school, the el­der­ly and oth­ers have been plagued by the de­plorable road con­di­tion for years and con­tin­ue to suf­fer and live with it, he point­ed out.

He said the road falls un­der the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port, adding Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan was born and bred in the vil­lage but shows no con­cern for his vil­lage and vil­lagers.

“Come on man, get re­al, have a heart for the chil­dren and el­der­ly. What you want the peo­ple to do again, they have been beg­ging, plead­ing and cry­ing for bet­ter roads and pub­lic ser­vice con­di­tions,” Ma­haraj said.

Ask­ing who else the peo­ple could turn to, he added, “The peo­ple can­not take it any more. Taxis have stopped work­ing, there is no pub­lic trans­port or oth­er means of trans­porta­tion.”

Not­ing that many of the road­ways were al­so be­ing dam­aged by heavy ve­hi­cles, some of which are be­ing used by state en­ti­ties.

“This is what we fac­ing now, lit­tle mud tracks and these mud tracks are be­ing mashed up by the heavy equip­ment brought in by Forestry Di­vi­sion. Ten-wheel­ers pulling logs tra­vers­ing and are dam­ag­ing the mud roads that we have left. Soon, the bridge will col­lapse and peo­ple will have no oth­er way to get out the vil­lage ex­cept by swim­ming across the rivers,” he said.

Ma­haraj ex­plained, how­ev­er, that he had got­ten some help from pri­vate en­ti­ties and soon they will drop some ma­te­r­i­al which can be used to bring some re­lief to them. How­ev­er, he said when the rains come the prob­lem will be res­ur­rect­ed.

Com­mu­ni­ty spokesper­son Mala Bor­ris told Guardian Me­dia that the poor road con­di­tions had been ex­ist­ing for years and res­i­dents had been forced to adapt to them.

“This is what our chil­dren, el­der­ly folks have to face on a dai­ly ba­sis. Some of them get ac­cus­tomed to the pud­dles and ponds on the road, in that they no longer wear shoes but walk bare feet,” she said.

She added that there is a sigh post­ed warn­ing that ve­hi­cles with lim­it­ed weight are al­lowed to use the road but no one cares and breaks the law, leav­ing res­i­dent to suf­fer the con­se­quences.

She said the on­ly ve­hi­cles that can pass through the rugged roads now are high ve­hi­cles and blamed the con­tin­u­ing de­plorable road con­di­tions on the wood cut­ters who are dri­ving heavy equip­ment and ten-wheel­ers in­to the com­mu­ni­ty.

“We have been com­plain­ing to them but they just don’t care about the vil­lagers, which is com­pound­ed by those in au­thor­i­ty,” she said.

She said she felt par­tic­u­lar­ly sor­ry for the school chil­dren who usu­al­ly have to walk to school and at times have to jump over the stag­nant wa­ter.

“They are forced to use the side of the road but this al­so is dan­ger­ous, as they can fall down the precipices and can hurt them­selves. Not on­ly that, Tamana is not­ed for snakes and this too pos­es a risk for our chil­dren,” she said.

Bor­ris urged the Gov­ern­ment and by ex­ten­sion Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to give an ear to the suf­fer­ing vil­lagers in the rur­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Sinanan said help is com­ing soon for the peo­ple of Guaico/Tamana Road. He said there is an on­go­ing pro­gramme of work and the Guaico/Tamana Road falls un­der the pro­gramme.

He al­so said the land­slide in the dis­trict will be ad­dressed in two or three pro­grammes of work be­gin­ning soon. He did not give a spe­cif­ic date but said the vil­lagers can be as­sured that help is com­ing for them soon.