Georgia residents cry for help to fix road
Published:Thursday | November 11, 2021 | 12:06 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
A minor road that leads residents from Georgia in rural St Thomas to the Trinityville main road is now on the verge of becoming fully eroded.
Already, about half of the road has already been eroded by water flowing from Copper Hole, two beautiful pools which are neatly tucked away in a valley inside Georgia.
A large guango tree located inside the river’s spur has been the road’s saviour, which causes an obstruction and prevents what is now left of the road from being further eroded.
However, even with the protection of the decades-old tree and its roots, when it rains heavily and the banks of the river overflow, the water, rocks and sediments in the river still dig under the surface of the road, and the residents are now crying for help from the relevant authorities.
Should another storm or hurricane come, the residents living in Georgia fear that the road will eventually be washed away, and they will be cut off from civilisation.
According to them, about half of the road has already been eroded, leaving one lane for vehicles to pass.
Wayne McBean, a resident who has lived in the community all his life, said should the road fully erode or collapse, the residents plan to make another path, which may very well go through other persons’ properties to take them in and out of the community.
“Soon, no road gonna be here if we ever get another heavy rain. If we nuh careful, we soon naav no road. It will affect police, nurse [and] business people who live here. People who work and dem sumn de,” McBean told The Gleaner.
Another resident, Jossett Deacon, added, “If a next storm come again, unu affi go drive over ina di cow pen; di people dem property, fi come back over and come pan di road.”
In addition to road erosion, when it rains heavily and the river overflows its banks, it floods out at least two houses, which includes Deacon’s house. Her house was flooded during the passage of Tropical Storm Elsa in July.
She showed The Gleaner marks on the walls around her house, which were over three feet high, where the water settled during and after that storm.
Deacon and other residents have a solution to the problem, which they want the authorities to hear them out with.
“The thing weh mi see possible wa can happen, a dem grinding the river pan the side weh get the most damage. That’s the only thing weh mi see and full up back down by the road weh wash off. Just full it up back and grind it so dem can control the water more,” Deacon told The Gleaner.
Large rocks were also seen in the river which help with the erosion. Environmentalist Peter Espeut is of the view that the rocks in the area need to be examined as well.
“We know that a lot of these roads are in areas that have difficult geologies; geology determines the kind of rocks and where the rocks are soft and shifts. What you find is that they seem to break away. It’s easy to have landslides and sadly, a lot of our rural areas are located in these communities that have shifts,” Espeut said.
He added, “If the Government is to repair all of these roads, every last one of them, it’s a tremendously expensive thing.”
The parish of St Thomas has received billions in investments for road and related infrastructure. Road development work is currently taking place along Georgia’s neighbouring Trinityville main road.
Stephen Shaw, manager, communication and customer services, National Works Agency, emphasised that his organisation is aware of the situation.
“Regarding the Georgia road, it is a fact that it is in need of attention. Unfortunately, we have not been provided with any budgetary support for this corridor at this time. Officers in the parish have done the necessary technical work and we await the support from the ministry,” he briefly stated.