DEAR EDITOR,
There are culverts coiling alongside the other side of the road going off to Auki. We were on this side of the road watching people rushing off to board the waiting trucks on the other side. Then it’s our turn to go ourselves. This is the current scene of crossing the make-shift bridge. Every sort of South Road user crosses on a certain place in Central Kwara’ae.
On the way back yesterday, I found myself carrying my own load of goods. This factor, among many annoying others, causes us to arrive home very late, let alone a lot of money wasted. Before the destruction of the bridge, the one-way fare had been paid at just $50 per head, but now we pay between $70 or $75 for one way and a fare of $140 or $150 both ways. To make it worse, we often arrive at around 7 pm or 11 pm in the night when our little kids go off to sleep, some with air-filled stomachs without food.
Putting fire on the wound, a rumor circulating tells us that market vendors who have built markets on the roadside close to the bridge don’t want the bridge to be reconstructed. Perhaps such a situation provides an avenue of cash-flow and better living for their community. I say this because a similar situation has happened in another area in West Kwaio. People there in Bira have threatened responsible authorities with word and so has caused that bridge to remain in rubble. Without thinking, it has been said that such a situation provides them with the construction of market stalls and a good catch of money.
Hence, the bridge remained in ruins until the latter worsened, the first into the very unwanted inconveniences people now experience but in the strongest terms don’t like in their hearts.
By the way, people are complaining in their hearts about such attitudes and they groan for it to be stopped so as to allow responsible authorities and individuals to continue rebuilding bridges that can connect people together to a meaningful ending.
H. Richard Wane
Su’u School
West Kwaio
