Saint Lucia’s National Green Party (NGP) has expressed concern about the state of the country’s road, warning against a ‘band-aid’ solution to the problem.
“Some holes are easily patched only to re-emerge in the near future – a band-aid solution to a more serious problem,” NGP leader Andre ‘Pancho’ de Caires told St. Lucia Times.
“The reality is that some large portions of our road network need a complete makeover, from foundation to resurfacing,” de Caires asserted.
He noted that the road network deteriorates rapidly every year during the rainy season.
The NGP leader observed that the main reason was blocked drains due to inadequate maintenance and insufficient drain infrastructure.
He explained that tiny potholes get more extensive due to vehicle traffic, and motorists pay the price in replacing vehicle parts and wasting time.
The NGP leader told St. Lucia Times that fixing the roads is every government’s responsibility, regardless of who is in power.
“Just like the (St. Jude) hospital situation, both are to blame,” de Caires observed.
Unfortunately black people tend to act only when they have a whip on their back. Only protest action will bring those politicians to do what the need to do. Let’s collectively stop paying road tax. Paying this tax does nothing for us. Our lives are being put at risk with the state of these roads. We are being placed in additional expense repairing our vehicles. Politicians have forgotten why we pay tax. They need to be reminded they are servants of the people.
NGP stop wasting your time. This country is lost. Instead of protesting against government non action on road repairs people run and buy SUV and pick vans so they are less affected by the potholes. Doing so is tacitly approving the bad road conditions as you just ride over the holes.
I really don’t care about these two parties – SLP and UWP. I just want these huge portholes from Vieux Fort to Castries fixed. Fix the damn roads. These huge holes are damaging my vehicle, and some are even life threatening. The government needs to do something. Minister King, you need to do something. Please don’t tell me about the rain season because we had a prolonged dry season. Don’t tell me no money because we pay taxes on every gallon of gas for the purpose of getting the road fixed. FIX THE ROADS.
I’m reading you’ll comments and I’m yet to understand how ignorant and out taste Lucians have become. Stop CALLING BAD ON LUCIA BECAUSR WHEN WE LUCIA FAIL WE AS A PEOPLE WILL FEEL THE HARDEST HIT. BE MINDFUL OF YOUR CHOICE OF WORDS. REMEMBER IT’S NOT PARTY IT’S COUNTRY
With this road construction situation in st lucia where the government give out road rehabilitation contracts and not getting what they pay for or not getting what is expected the ministry Mc&w must employed field engineers that must vist the job site everyday and must have a government road inspector station on every job site and he’s job is to approve or reject work as being done or else the contractor cannot get paid the idea of giving a contractor a multi million dollar contractor with no government official monitoring the work pogress is nothing but bad businesses on the government part and opens the door to wide range of fraud and corruption and the country goes backwards instead of forward
Band- aid pot hole repair needs to be done routinely on a consistent basis to curb worsening conditions for drivers.
When the SLP said “People don’t eat roads”. We didn’t realize that it was more than a campaign slogan but a policy position. Pierre will say it was in the manifesto and we voted for it!