‘We go through harrowing experiences’

• Okwagbe community appeals to Delta government over decrepit roads
FOR Okwagbe community in Ughelli South Local Council, Delta State, who have endured the misfortune of unending bumpy and risky journeys due to the failed over 40-kilometre road linking the rural sea community to the rest of the state, there is general displeasure.
 In 2006, the road, which was then un-tarred and almost impassable, cut the community from the rest of the state.
  However following immense pressures by the indigenes of Okwagbe, the attention of the state government was drawn to the road resulting in the alleged fixing of the road between 2006 and 2007.
   But, almost eight years after the tarring of the road and commissioning by the then Governor, James Ibori administration, pot holes and huge craters have surfaced again at different points of the road making travels on the road cumbersome and replete with mishaps.
  The unfortunate major flooding disaster of 2012, which ravelled many coastal communities of Delta state, reportedly took a huge toll on the road with many spots washed away to the sea.
   Recently, it was gathered that a head-on collision between a commercial motorcycle and a vehicle, who were trying to avoid a huge pot hole on the road, led to the loss of two lives. The development has reinforced the recent agitation for an urgent intervention by the state government.
   However, a trip to the community revealed that some of the worst affected spots on the road are being patched up by the Delta state road maintenance agency. In some places, however, the road maintenance agents just dumped granite haphazardly without spreading them properly on the road.
   Chief Olorogun Okiemute Oviri Okwagbe, a community leader and chieftain of the PDP blamed decrepit state of the roads “on poor construction and the refusal of the construction firm to conduct a scientific analysis of the road in order to come up with a more lasting appropriate design.” To him the fund used in the perennial remedial works on the road could be saved if a solid design is put in place.
  Chief Okawagbe who lauded the efforts of the Gov Emmanuel Uduaghan administration in repairing the road after several portions were washed away during the 2012 flooding, said the road keeps failing because of the peculiar soil texture of the area being close to large water bodies. He argued that the road needs special construction technique rather than the one always used.
  He said: “The people of Okwagbe go through harrowing experiences just to travel to their community from Warri or Ughelli. It is so bad that if you are driving on the road you must maintain at least 99 per cent concentration if you don’t want to lose control of your vehicle in the attempt to dodge pot-holes. We’re pleading to the Delta state government to investigate why the Okwagbe road is always failing after it is repaired.”
  “Okwagbe is naturally a producing community; we produce a lot of fish and other agricultural produce but we don’t have good network of roads to take them to the rest of the state. That is why we are appealing to government to urgently come to our aid,” he said.