Source: FrontPage Africa
07/30/2010 - Nat Nyuan Bayjay,
SOAKY ROADS: While critics continue to blame the Chinese firm for poor drainage system resulting into such situations, both the Ministry of Public Works and their Chinese partner continually cite the issue of the rehab works being just the first phase with full rehab works expected to resume as soon as the rainy reason ends. Commuters and probably pedestrians’ previous thoughts of having their worries of Monrovia’s streets that were in terrible and bad shapes being remedied seem far from over.
Despite the first phase of the rehabilitation works done on the principal streets of the capital by the Chinese Construction Company (CICO) after winning the bid to do so, every downfall of rain renders most of the city’s streets either heavily flooded or impassable, remaining so until after several minutes even after the rain stops.
The situation is increasingly becoming worrisome for the public for the busy and commercial streets in Central Monrovia that underwent CICO’s first phase of rehabilitation. The floods are mainly concentrated at the intersections of major streets, making most vehicles that are low and not built-up to most often dodge the affected areas which they do with little success due to the situations being the same almost in every location in the city center.
Among the regularly affected areas are the intersection of Broad and Lynch Streets which extends further to the DHL Office and the National Headquarters of the ruling Unity Party, the intersection of Randall and Broad Streets which results into the formation of deposited body of water at the corner of the two commercial streets as the water tries to force its way down Randall and Carey Streets, and the Carey Street portion where the famous Atai shop is located, among others.
While critics continue to blame the Chinese firm for poor drainage system resulting into such situations, both the Ministry of Public Works and their Chinese partner continually cite the issue of the rehab works being just the first phase with full rehab works expected to resume as soon as the rainy reason ends.
But critics have refused the excuse of the poor drainage being the result of the first phase as they say that the first phase of the rehab work in no way should mean the streets being flooded.
“Yes, thank you, man for taking the picture. Put it in the media so that they can know that they have not done a good job here and they should not continue to tell us that because there is a second phase of the work remaining that we should always be walking in water in the city whenever it rains”, said an angry pedestrian to the FrontPageAfrica’s reporter as he tip-toed in maneuvering his way of the flooded corner of Randall and Broad Streets while passing vehicles struggled to make their left and right-turns.
Rehabilitation of the pothole-ridden city streets of Monrovia is part of the World Bank's 10-year infrastructure projects for the post-conflict economy as the country faces the enormous challenges of reconstructing and constructing roads.
CICO is undertaking the rehabilitation of the streets of Monrovia under an agreement signed between the Government of Liberia and the Bank, as part of the country’s Infrastructure Fund being managed by the Bank.
While President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s inspection tour in April of this year of then ongoing rehabilitation work of the streets made her to express satisfaction over the pace of the work, it remains challenging on the Chinese construction firm’s part which also won the contract to re-construct the collapsed Via Town Bridge to curb Monrovia’s flood-prone city-center streets.
President Sirleaf during the tour commended the Public Works Ministry and Chinese engineers for working together to ensure the successful completion of the rehabilitation works.
The Chinese firm has also been rocked with workers’ complaints of low wages which prompted Public Works Minister, Samuel Kofi Woods, to give them assurance that his ministry was going to work with the relevant government agencies including the Ministry of Labor and the National Police to address some of their concerns.
Rehab works on Monrovia’s streets have over the months been greeted with mixed public views of both condemnations and delays on one hand and commendations on the other hand.
The project came to a standstill earlier this year in which government cited the slow pace of cash flow to the contractors, CICO, and its competing Chinese firm, the China Henan International Company (CHICCO) while the delay was further heightened by the country’s downpour of heavy rain.
The intensive rehab works have seen the removal and replacement of old ‘kotas’ and repairing and construction of drainages but much still desires to be done as Monrovia’s 1.3 million inhabitants, like the rest of the country’s population, still have about four or more months of rainfall and probably beyond, given the change in the country’s climatic conditions.
