DEAR SIR,

Allow me space in your editorial to express my views about the above subject matter.

A week ago, I was travelling back to my village and was surprised to see that a grader was lying idol at Feragao village. Two minutes after, we then by-passed Kwailabesi airport and much to my amazement, a roller was even there unattended to. As we approached Tagulao village, a bulldozer was even lying alongside the road with all of its parts scattered everywhere only to be taken care of by the hosting ‘Okoalo’ creepers.

The two bridges at Taba’a and Kwai within the Lau/Mbaelelea Constituency were in desperate need especially of immediate maintenance. It was quite scary for the travelling public to travel especially on fully loaded vehicles on those two bridges make it even worse when the drivers were driving at top speed. I wonder why road maintenance within Lau/Mbaelelea Constituency was not done properly. Already such companies like Hatanga and Dalgro were seen conducting road maintenance in other parts of the North road up to Taba’a river. Why exclude Lau/Mbaelelea Constituency from such road maintenance? Secondly, if road maintenance or the said road project itself is for the entire North road, then work progress in my view should continue on up to Fouia.

Lau/Mbaelelea Constituency is one of the populated constituencies in the country. Already our poor farmers and fishermen or even our entire travelling public had been denied direct access due to poor and inadequate road services.I therefore called upon the responsible authorities to be fair to everyone in terms of service delivery.

Christmas is slowly approaching and for the comfort of every travelling passengers along the north road, those two bridges both at Taba’a and Kwai for goodness sake must be repaired quickly. During such time of the year, vehicles along the north road use to compete against each other for passengers and guess what, the drivers would not mind about the safety of those travelling on board their vehicles. What matters most to them is money and getting rid of their passengers at their drop-off points before immediately returning back to Auki for their next expected truck-load of passengers. What I am trying to say here is that safety of travelling passengers can only be guaranteed if road condition is good.

As a fellow constituent of Lau/Mbaelelea constituency, I have great concern for my people’s safety and in doing so, may I call upon the responsible authorities to quickly address such issue before anything worse could happen. May I suggest that both Taba’a and Kwai bridges to be built more like their sister bridge at Kwainafala in Ward 6 where its very foundation is actually built further away from the river banks. By doing that, the bridges would be quite safe and secure probably from the angry rivers during bad weathers. Concerning, road maintenance, may I suggest that reliable machines that are operational must be used and engaged so that work requirements and quality of services rendered must be of excellent standard.

Lest we forget, election is coming up, we do not want to hear anything about development from any intending candidates. All we want is improving our roads and bridges for the safety of our travelling public. If there is any financial allocation for road maintenance especially for our North road, then Lau/Mbaelelea people in particular deserve direct benefit from it.

Ambrose Oiofa Dolofera

Bishop Epalle Catholic School

Honiara.