Over the past couple of weeks the already bad streets of Belize City have deteriorated significantly, so much so that just getting across the city is a pain. Compound that with the Christmas traffic jams, and you've got a soaring misery index. Well, in a release today the City Council blames it on the rains. But how much longer will residents of and visitors to the country's commercial capital have to bear the potholes just to get across the city? Mayor Moya today told us.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
The busiest traffic time of the year and on the busiest street of the city this is how traffic moves along. It moves as if this were the back street of some under developed area of the country. Potholes dominate Albert Street and streets across the city. Mayor Zenaida Moya says the reason why the streets are in such a state of disrepair is because of the rains.
Zenaida Moya, Mayor of Belize City
"We have already been purchasing materials to go ahead and fix the streets. What halted the whole fixing were the rains."
But while Moya can blame it on the rain she says work crews are already deployed trying to ameliorate the situation. They are filling the streets with white marl making the drive a bit more bearable.
Zenaida Moya,
"We are hoping that the rains will hold up so that we can start the
process. Hopefully if the streets are all dried and the moisture is out, you will start to see men patching as early as this afternoon. The tar won't hold if there is even moisture in the holes so we have to ensure that all of that is dried before we can go out and patch the streets."
But as the work crews are already at work filling holes, Moya says that the reality is that they may not move as fast as they would want to because of limited resources.
Zenaida Moya,
"There is only so much staff that we have so when they are out in one area, there are times when you have so many other streets but they are working really hard to ensure that they cover the area. We have to work within our means. We don't want to be increasing property taxes at all so if we won't be increasing property taxes, then there is only so much that we can do. We are working within our means and we only hope that residents will understand. So when we have the Ministry of Works that should step in, they need to step in."
And until they step in the sight of vehicles wheels rolling in potholes may be a sight that will continue for this Christmas season.
In related news Moya today told us that they have yet to receive two months of payments from the Belize Tourism Board. She says the council has also seen a cut in central government's subvention for special programs.
