Corozal Residents Fix Roads After Years of Neglect

In Corozal, when the roads don’t get fixed, the people do. Frustrated after years of neglect, residents in Little Belize, Viva Esperanza, and Chunox have decided to take matters into their own hands. They’re pooling money, machinery, and manpower to repair roads that have been in terrible shape for far too long. Now, back in February, Area Representative Florencio Marin Jr. and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development stepped in with some improvements, but villagers say it wasn’t nearly enough. They’re now calling on the government to prioritize upgrades along the San Estevan to Chunox route. One resident, Franz Olfert, told News Five the community simply couldn’t wait any longer. So, neighbors came together, funded the work themselves, and got it done, determined to make travel safer and easier for everyone.

 

On the Phone: Franz Olfert, Corozal Resident

“The government never scrapes that road. Never, let’s say never is never, that means never. And then what we usually would do, go to like Chunox and Progesso, to the villages around and collect donations until we have enough to fix the road. But this time, it’s in such a horrible condition, we are not getting enough donations from the people so that we can fix it properly. We started to fix it from little Belize to Chunox. We already five thousand dollars, from Little Belize Village, and we have a thousand from Chunox. And but that’s far from enough to fix it regularly. So that’s why I try, maybe if he put it on the news, I thought maybe the government sees it and take a little bit of action because that it’s in a very horrible situation with that rule.”

 

Britney Gordon

About how many roads do you think need fixing in that area right now?

 

On the phone: Franz Olfert

“Oh, okay. So that is just from San Estevan all the way up to Progresso and from Progresso cut off all the way to Chunox.”

 

Britney Gordon

“And what exactly are you using the money to purchase? Is it for equipment or for materials?”

On the phone: Franz Olfert,

“No, no. There is, the glass shop Viva Esperanza close to Chunox. So though that shop has a grader and I collected the donation, so that’s why I came up to you. I collected the donations from the people and hired their grader to fix the road. That money that I got together is not enough to fix it completely,”