WESTERN BUREAU:
SEVERAL IRATE residents of western Hanover yesterday blocked the major roadway between Green Island and Grange Hill in Westmoreland to protest the poor state of roads in the area.
As early as 6 a.m., residents and motorists from the districts of Kendal, Grange, Harden Hall and Glasgow began cutting down trees and using debris to block the roadway.
The protesters contend that the road, which falls under the responsibility of the National Works Agency, is filled with "small craters". The police subsequently cleared the blockage.
However, Steven Shaw, the NWA's community relations officer for the western region, told The Gleaner that the National Water Commission (NWC) is hampering rehabilitation work in that area.
"We went there in 2001 and started work along that stretch of roadway. The contractors were not finished when persons acting on behalf of NWC started cutting trenches in the roadways to lay pipes," Mr. Shaw explained.
CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENT
"We have a contractual agreement with the NWC, where we reinstate areas that are damaged by the NWC for repairs of their pipes. The necessary steps have been taken by us and the commission is yet to sign off on it."
Mr. Shaw also noted that several correspondences, the last time in May 2004, were sent to the NWA on the matter. He also added that NWC did not seek approval from his agency to start excavation work in the area, where the NWA had spent nearly $12 million between 2001 and 2002 to rehabilitate the roadway under contention.
The National Water Commission confirmed that it had received an estimate from the NWA to effect repairs to a number of roadways in the parish, and it is trying to forge a solution to the problem.
"We subsequently requested a breakdown of costs relating to the roadways in the different communities," stated Lisa Golding, the NWC's Public Relations officer in western Jamaica.
"We have not received that breakdown, however we are in dialogue with the NWA to reach the earliest possible solution."
