Shas­tri Boodan

Gran Cou­va vil­lagers yes­ter­day start­ed clean­ing the drains in the low­er part of the road fol­low­ing re­cent flood­ing and clog­ging of the drainage.

Daniel Col­lier, 48, said the res­i­dents are fed up.

“These drains are caus­ing flood­ing on the main road. We have to fix our ve­hi­cles and spend mon­ey on car parts. The Gov­ern­ment is ne­glect­ing the peo­ple here. The roads are bad and the drains cause so much dis­tress to the peo­ple. The clog­ging caused so much flood­ing.

“You dri­ve in the flood wa­ter and hit a pot­hole and it is ex­pense af­ter ex­pense for ve­hi­cles. We are ask­ing for the ma­te­ri­als to fix the roads and we, the vil­lagers, will do it.”

Col­lier said res­i­dents are dis­traught over the state of the roads and drains.

The Gran Cou­va Road con­nects the north­bound and south­bound lanes of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way to the Ca­paro Val­ley Bras­so Road that takes traf­fic out of Mamoral, Bras­so, Ca­paro, Rio Claro and Ma­yaro.

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Hen­ry Awong yes­ter­day said main­te­nance along the Gran Cou­va Road is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the Min­istry of Works.

“The min­istry is not do­ing any grass cut­ting, no paving, no clean­ing. It’s ex­cuse af­ter ex­cuse from the min­istry. When we have month­ly meet­ings with the min­istry, they com­plain of no man­pow­er, no ma­chin­ery, no ma­te­ri­als. I am fed up tak­ing the bash­ing for the Min­istry of Works. “The CT­TRC is be­ing starved of re­sources and we can­not get any work done. We are re­spon­si­ble for the San Co­co Road in Gran Cou­va, where there is a ma­jor land­slip that will take mil­lions of dol­lars to fix and we are not get­ting the fund­ing. The min­is­ter must get his act to­geth­er. Peo­ple are pay­ing the road tax when they buy fu­el, where is this mon­ey go­ing? All we are get­ting from the min­istry is ex­cus­es.”