Sweet Vale residents frustrated over roads, water woes

Residents of Sweet Vale, St George, are frustrated by unfinished road works and recurring water problems, with some saying they are still waiting for meaningful improvements despite years of complaints.

Amanda Burke, who has lived in the area for eight years, said the road remains a major concern despite ongoing patching.

Patch work done on Sweet Vale Road. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla)

“The road is terrible,” she said. “Every minute they putting in the Barber-Greene and they lay in some of the holes and then it’s bad again.”

Burke said the road is currently in the best condition she has seen in years, but added that little has changed beyond patching potholes.

“This the best the road has been in a long time,” she said. “Nothing to do with that road for years other than patching the holes.”

She said the water supply has also become a concern.

When the water was last off, Burke said, it was off for about four days. And “the water truck ain’t even come down in here.”

Anthony Elliot said residents are still waiting for the road work to be completed after what he described as limited progress.

“I will wait and see if they come and finish,” he said.

According to Elliot, “It’s only 20 per cent that got to finish, which could be no more than about two or three hours or so of finishing patch the potholes,” he said.

Elliot also raised concerns about the water supply, saying residents are not always given enough information when the service is interrupted: “They turn off the water, they don’t tell you nothing. They don’t even send a tank, they don’t even tell you a tanker coming out.”

Pipe said to help with water pressure. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla)

He added: “The other day it was off for almost seven days,” he said. “They ain’t send no tankers out through here, you had to keep noise for a tanker to come out.”

The tanker eventually arrived late at night, he said. “All after nine o’clock and thing people in the bed lying down.”

While some residents continue to report water problems, Eunice Brooks, 91, who has lived in Sweet Vale for more than 50 years, said she has not experienced the same difficulties.

Eunice Brooks. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla)

“We do not have any water issues. At least I don’t. I don’t hear anyone complaining,” she said.

Brooks said she occasionally hears of isolated problems but has not personally experienced discoloured water or low pressure.

“You know, sometimes somebody have a li’l burst pipe or so, but we do not suffer from water,” she said.

She also described the road as a longstanding problem.

“Yeah, go and come. Sometimes they come and fix it and get bad like this,” Brooks said. “So they start now patching it before they really do anything really good to it.”

The latest concerns come after Barbados TODAY reported in July that residents had welcomed plans for the reconstruction of the Sweet Vale road, commonly known as Sweet Bottom, after decades of deterioration.

At the time, residents described potholes, flooding, narrow roadways and safety concerns, while the Ministry of Transport and Works confirmed Sweet Vale was among the roads scheduled for reconstruction under a road rehabilitation programme funded by CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The ministry also said a roundabout was planned for the area, but a start date had not been set because boundary surveys, consultations with residents, drainage mitigation measures and final designs were still being completed. Pothole patching was expected in the interim.

In September, Barbados TODAY also reported on water outages affecting residents in parts of St George, St John and St Philip. Residents in Sweet Vale reported going without water for several days, with some also raising concerns about low pressure and the response from water tankers.

The Barbados Water Authority subsequently said technical difficulties affecting the Bowmanston Pumping Station in St John had been resolved and that water supplies would gradually return to normal as the system recovered. 

(LE)