Espat Faces Heat Over Highway Drain Complaints

Road upgrades along Belize’s two main highways are meant to improve lives, but for some residents, they’re raising new concerns. As construction pushes ahead on the George Price and Phillip Goldson Highways, homeowners say the drains being built outside their properties sit higher than their yards, increasing the risk of flooding. When we put those concerns to Minister Julius Espat, he acknowledged the challenges that come with progress, insisting each complaint is being reviewed case by case.

 

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing

“We go back to the world that everybody seems to make fun of, climate resilience. The IFIs when they give you the loans, they are now insisting the projects are done within a category called climate resilience. It is just telling you the world weather patterns are changing and whatever project needs to be done needs to address that situation as best as you can. In the case of the roads we are doing, we are putting in more drains, deeper drains. The roads are being done higher, because you see what happened in the coastal. So we have to protect the roads. Some of the areas are being done with concrete instead of chip seal instead of hot mix. We are addressing the issues one by one, normally the complaints are at the initial stages of the projects when the roads are going in and the levels are high. Then our engineers along with our social partners, we have social engineers that go out and speak to each individual residents, so we will be addressing the concerns one by one.”

 

Sixty-five million dollars is currently being invested in rehabilitating the George Price Highway from Hattieville to Pound Yard Bridge in Belize City.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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