No more mud dam for ‘E’ Field, Sophia
GINA, GUYANA, Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Residents of ‘E’ Field, Sophia who were not included in the Ring Road project will now have better access to their homes as a result of Minister in the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson’s intervention.
Contractors pumping water from part of the dam in ‘E’ Field, Sophia to complete road works
Community Coordinator, Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Neilson McKenzie said the residents were using a dam that was slippery and dangerous to get to the public road “and with immediate intervention of the Minister of Public Infrastructure, we decided and determined that the least we could do is put in a concrete, eight- foot access road,” McKenzie explained.
McKenzie noted that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has recognised the precarious nature of the dam, especially in the rainy weather, which led to the construction of bridges by the residents for access to the public road.
Grace Benn, a resident of E Field said, “I’m living here for nearly 20 and odd years so I’m very, very grateful… I waited a very long moment for this.”
On-going works on the ‘E’ Field, Sophia road
Marilyn Winfield another E Field resident spoke about the state of the road prior to the road works. “I don’t have to walk in the mud anymore; this mud was very annoying, some days I had to get long boots to crawl out. There was even an alligator here on the dam once…I grateful for the road.”
Karen Charles who has resided there for 23 years said, ever since, the area has been in a deplorable state. “We had no road, we had a dam and couldn’t even step out on rainy days. All our children had to stay in and this was burdensome for us, so I’m really thankful for the government for this here.”
McKenzie explained that the initiative is funded under savings from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s budget.
Meanwhile, the Sophia Ring Road project which commenced in January 2016 is moving apace and will be completed shortly. “The Ministry is committed to completing the Ring Road where we’re currently doing grading and scarifying of the other roads that we can’t put asphalt on,” McKenzie explained.
During his presentation of the 2015 Budget, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, had stated that the Government of Guyana would invest $387M to upgrade the Sophia Ring Road in a bid to link the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue urban development to other communities.