JESSE RAMDEO

An Op­po­si­tion-led press con­fer­ence was al­most washed away to­day, af­ter parts of the San Fran­cique road­way col­lapsed, caus­ing wa­ter to run off on­to the sur­face of the road, and through the spot where the press con­fer­ence was be­ing held. 

At the time, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Oropouche West, Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo MP, was lead­ing a press con­fer­ence in the mid­dle of the road to high­light the de­plorable con­di­tions along Pluck Road in San Fran­cique, be­cause of land­slides in the area.

Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo leads a press conference in the middle of the road, to highlight the deplorable road conditions along Pluck Road, San Francique, on Tuesday 12 July 2022. [Image by JESSE RAMDEO]

Al­so in at­ten­dance at the press con­fer­ence were the lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cilor for the area, Doonath Mayrhoo, as well as Chair­man of the Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Den­ish Sankers­ingh.

MP Tan­coo said there are fears that due to the dif­fi­cul­ties tra­vers­ing the thor­ough­fare, res­i­dents can in­jure them­selves or even get in­volved in a fa­tal ac­ci­dent.

Ac­cord­ing to the MP and res­i­dents in the area, the largest pot­hole the coun­try has seen could be found in San Fran­cique.

Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo and residents of Pluck Road in San Francique believe this is the largest pothole in the entire country. [Image by JESSE RAMDEO]

“The road is not even or con­sis­tent with all the land slip­page along it,” the Oropouche West MP said.  “You would swear this pot­hole is a re­sult­ing crater from an earth­quake that would have tak­en place.”

MP Tan­coo said ve­hi­cles have stopped ac­cess­ing the road be­cause it is now im­pass­able to all but pedes­tri­an traf­fic.

He says re­pair­ing the road falls un­der the purview of the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port and called on the Min­is­ter, Sen­a­tor Ro­han Sinanan, to take the nec­es­sary ac­tion quick­ly, so the sit­u­a­tion can be re­solved.