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Help! Content Gap roads are badly in need of repair

Published:Saturday | June 16, 2012 | 12:00 AM
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Potholes and breakways characterise the road infrastructure of Content Gap and other communities in East Rural St Andrew. Letter writers to The Gleaner have been complaining that little has been done to alleviate these conditions first photographed in 2006. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Potholes and breakways characterise the road infrastructure of Content Gap and other communities in East Rural St Andrew. Letter writers to The Gleaner have been complaining that little has been done to alleviate these conditions first photographed in 2006. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
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THE EDITOR, Sir:

I am writing as a follow-up to AWEB's letter (published on May 26, 2012) concerning the plight of the citizens of Quashie Gap in St Andrew and its environs, whose member of parliament seems to be missing in action.

We pay our property taxes diligently; but to what avail? Street lighting (where it exists) is inadequate. There is no garbage collection. Water supply is poor, and we do not even have a proper road!

Over the years, we have seen our primary and secondary roads deteriorate as the rains pound them mercilessly - the surfaces are non-existent in parts and the potholes have now become gigantic craters. There has been little or no canalisation over the years, and so the water, having nowhere to go, seeps into the roads. Tropical storms Gustav and Nicole came and went, wreaking havoc on an already poor infrastructure.

Pedestrians, including a host of schoolchildren, have to be careful how and where they walk; and when it rains, they have to wade through mud and sludge with their shoes in hand!

The wear and tear on, and damage to, our vehicles is unimaginable. The breakaways continue to erode the main road (linking us to Kingston), making the road narrower and narrower in spots and rendering passage more and more hazardous.

More than two weeks into the hurricane season, we are worried as to how East Rural St Andrew is going to weather the storm.

Our elected officials have consistently turned a blind eye to the worsening road problem. Although we do not expect our present MP to wave a magic wand, we are pleading with Mr Damion Crawford to visit his constituency with the same alacrity as during the pre-election period, to see what emergency measures he can implement, in tandem with the National Works Agency, before it's too late.

C. M.

Content Gap