Pot House residents hope project will soon be completed

A road rehabilitation project that should have lasted only about three months in a rural community has now been on pause for the past year.

While work on the roadway in Pot House, St John was started at the end of 2019, with a promise from Prime Minister Mia Mottley that it would be completed in about three months’ time, residents are yet to see this promise fulfilled.

Work began with the laying of pipes, building of fresh culverts, some patch work to sections of the road and the laying and rolling of marl.

However, the Latin American Development Bank (CAF) funded project was forced to be placed on pause as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which started to affect the island in March 2020.

When a Barbados TODAY team visited the area on Thursday to see how residents were coping with the present conditions, they said they understood the reasons behind the pause, but insisted that it was still important that the road be fixed soon.

Residents have complained that the road in the Pot House community had been in a terrible state for many years, but was made even worse due to heavy rains, blocked drains and pipe laying that was carried out in 2019.

In mid-December 2019 Prime Minister Mia Mottley, other government representatives and engineers visited the community and declared that work would begin that same month and last until about March 2020.

Outspoken resident in the area Jefferson Trotman told Barbados TODAY while he was grateful “the water situation has improved significantly, the road is still deplorable”.

He said while he commended officials on the work done so far, “We still need the road finished.”

“It is not a road you can fix easily but the time span in which the Prime Minister had given the road should be completed by now. It is atrocious,” said Trotman.

“I understand there is COVID but . . . it was budgeted so the money should have been there to complete the road. So if the road had been completed in the time span she had given then we wouldn’t run into COVID,” he said, pointing out that a part of the delay may have been caused by a lack of some equipment.

Stressing that he understood it was not an easy fix now that the country is under severe economic stress from the effects of the pandemic, Trotman said “The country still has to function so we have to balance both.”

He pointed out because of the conditions of the road people still had to be changing various parts on their vehicles due to damage.

“We understand COVID has come and the Government of Barbados and the wider world is under economic strains, but at the same time whatever is possible at this time we would be grateful if the road could be completed,” said Trotman.

Merline Olton, who has returned to the area some 13 years ago after spending just over two decades overseas, told Barbados TODAY: “It is only now that this government got in that something is really happening and we are seeing a little improvement.”

However, she too is eager to have the project completed.

“I am hoping to see some development down here. At this age to climb that hill is not easy and I hope they would have the road rectified completely as soon as possible so that we can have cross-country transportation. Everywhere in Barbados has a cross-country bus except St John,” said the Olton, who is in her 70s.

“Bath is a nice place, and I hope that when they finish the road on that side the buses from Speightstown can come right to Bath, which would be a good thing for the senior citizens. But everything takes time and I think our Prime Minister is doing a very good job,” she said.

She said she was happy that the “big issue” with the water supply had been rectified, recalling the ordeal she went through for weeks at a time.

“I suffered really badly about the water,” she said, recalling that because of injuries she was unable to lift her buckets of water when the trucks came to deliver.

“And then the water trucks men gave so much problem, they didn’t want to help, and it was really hard on me. Sometimes you look at things and ask yourself if slavery is over because of the conditions some of us have to go through, it puts you back to those times you hear about,” she said.

Valarie Gittens, who owns a house in the neighbourhood and returns home every year for a lengthy vacation, told Barbados TODAY she was surprised the road condition was “still horrible”.

“I believe it should have been fixed already. It is about time,” she said.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)