The seven years of plenty are past, and an austerity that compares favorably to pharaoh's seven years of famine are showing everywhere. One such place is Belize Rural North and the long-neglected Old Northern Highway. Patches of pavement cover a 40 mile stretch of highway riddled with pot holes. And where government cannot, the community has realized that it must do something. Last week UDP standard-bearer Edmund Castro spearheaded a project to use donations and community labor to improve the highway. I visited to find that while it may be politics, it's also practical.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
This is the kind of wear and tear that vehicles that travel on the Old Northern Highway have to endure on a daily basis. The road has deteriorated to the point where there are more potholes than there is pavement.
Alfonso Noble,
How long do you remember the last time it was the Ministry of Works came out here and even patched the roads?
Driver #1,
"I don't even remember because it is a very long time. Right now in my village the situation is as, you can see, it is not in a good shape. It is very terrible. I just lately messed up four shocks from my vehicle. I have to fix it. Everybody has been complaining about it."
Driver #2,
"I drive this road almost every day, I think this road is really bad. Somebody needs to do something about this road."
Alfonso Noble,
But how inconvenient is it for you do driving on this type of road?
Driver #2,
"Man my vehicle gets a beating all the time. I have to be repairing the vehicle every time. I know a lot of people who complain about this road all the time."
Driver #3,
"This is the main road we use."
Alfonso Noble,
How difficult is it for you to be coming through this road?
Driver #3,
"A lot of difficulty for real because everywhere is a hole and every minute you have to change a tire. It will cause accidents too on the real. We need the upgrade because we have a lot of potholes and it is really taking us into a lot of expense fir tires and things."
It's a sore point for most who use the road on a daily basis considering that this very road takes tourists to one of the country's most visited Mayan temple.
Driver #1,
"It is a shame. A lot of tourists come particularly into this area. We have Altun Ha, Maruba, and it is a shame to see this happening. We need to do something about this thing, somebody needs to do something about this thing."
Driver #2,
"We have very busy traffic because here is also a tourist location at Altun Ha and the big buses come through so this is a very busy road. The road is really in need of resurfacing. This is a good job but it needs to be resurfaced all over."
Driver #1,
"If they can pave this road from Maskall, because Maskall is the main village in the surrounding, if they can pave this road from Maskall to Sandhill, it will be very good, great."
Driver #3,
"I wish that it could have been fixed and compact like the way it was before. We don't that it is narrow but at least fix the holes."
But it seems that his wish for the entire highway to be resurfaced will not materialize anytime soon and that's where UDP standard-bearer for Belize Rural North Edmund Castro has stepped in. Last week Castro began working on the highway, with the assistance of residents in the area who are volunteering, working solely for the improvement of the road. Castro has secured donations to patch the pothole riddled highway.
Edmund Castro, UDP Belize Rural North Candidate
"We came together with other residents from the Old Northern Highway to raise some funds. We are inviting the business community to come in and help us with some premixed, some hardcore. So we are out since Tuesday. We started Tuesday from the Old Maskall junction with Sandhill and we plan to fix all the holes for the next 26.25 miles of potholes. So we started that Tuesday. We put down so far three loads of hardcore, 3 fifteen yards, a truck of hardcore, which costs about $750 per load of hardcore and now we are doing the chip and tar which is the premixed. We are going over it to make sure we seal the hole to make sure that it lasts much longer and much more durable.
We live on this road and it has been for many many years this road has been neglected. It has reached a point whereby it is almost impossible for us to commute back and forth. Almost everyday you can find somebody on the roadside that either has burst a tire or punctured. It is very costly, especially for the farmers coming out of Maskall and Bomba and Corzalito and so on. The farmers have to commute approximately three time weeks ago, they commute normally on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday to take their produce down to Belize City. These are farmers that are fighting for, also that leave home 12 or one 'clock in the morning to get a good spot in Belize City. Would you imagine in the rain for them to burst a tire and they have to be out there with their produce one o'clock in the morning fixing a tire."
And that now has these men working assiduously to make the road a bit better, to avoid that kind of common occurrence. But Castro admits there are limitations and financing is one of them.
Edmund Castro,
"Anybody that can chip in and give us some materials, some hardcore or some chip and tar, we are appealing to them to give us a hand. We will do the rest."
Castro's project will patch 26 miles of road.
