By Henry Kargbo
People in Kailahun are crying for good road network as vehicles in that part of the country have also yielded to hours of zigzag movement occasioned by the bumpy, ragged and deplorable roads while vehicle owners work tirelessly to get them back on the road.
Several days of torrential rains in the area have aggravated the situation resulting in the emergence of gullies and mini streams across the road. No vehicle could move from one side to the other as sections of the road had been obstructed by the faulty vehicles.
Scores of residents of the communities along the two major towns had gathered at various sections of the road and were trying to do their own thing. Some of them were busy trying to create wooden bridges over the gullies on the road to aid movement. They wondered why roads in an area that prides itself as a hub of cocoa, cacao, and coffee production in the Kailahun had been left to rot in that manner. Farmers in the municipality are counting their losses because most of their farm produce are getting rot because of the bad roads.
The residents also bemoaned the negative impact the roads were having on healthcare delivery in their communities as they found it difficult to transport patients to other areas for medical care. Residents of Kailahun district narrated how monitoring of the bad roads network had stopped vehicles from the accessing the roads. The women residents said the deplorable state of the roads in the area had worsened the poverty situation in the town since economic activities had almost halted.
Residents continued to say that the state of the roads in the Kailahun municipality is just a tip of the iceberg as many roads in the country are in a deplorable state. The roads linking Kailahun district and other towns, as well as other roads, are in such a terrible state that one wonders if such roads lead to cocoa producing areas.
“While the few tarred roads have lost their tar, most of the rough roads have developed what can be described as man-holes and gullies that pose great discomfort to road users. The much-talked about roads and corridor roads that have been mentioned in almost every budget statement by successive government have not proven to be anything good to write home about, more so as the dilapidated roads never get fixed, which still remains a blot on the country’s conscience,” residents of Kailahun said.
A trader said: “The stretches of the roads are in such a messy state that one wonders if the residents of Kailahun are part of the country. This stunning statistics indicate that the country’s road transportation system is not robust enough to support efficient transportation of goods and services for national development. Meanwhile, work on many road projects have stalled across the country because the contractors are owed huge amounts of money. Quality road network is a critical infrastructure requirement for sustainable development.”
In expressing dissatisfaction over the state of roads in Kailahun, a farmer also said: “Just as farmers need good roads to cart the produce to market centres, so do businesses thrive when roads are in good condition. It is for this reason that priority ought to be placed on building a robust road sector capable of improving all aspects of our national life.”
Residents stated further that the situation has got worse in the district while promises were being made by the Government of Sierra Leone to fix the road network.
“The bad road condition is worrisome especially for truck owners who bring fuel from other parts of the country to be sold here. They always find it difficult to ply the road,” the farmer noted.
