Members of more than twenty families living on the road that connects Palisi to Sinamoga are calling on the government for help.
They are urging Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi and his government to please fix the road before somebody gets seriously hurt.
Besides, they are tired of having to spend so much money on fixing their vehicles ruined by the monster potholes that dot the road from the bottom of the hill until the top.
The road (pictured right) has been so badly eroded by the rain; taxi drivers refuse to use it. Some smaller cars cannot get through. Nearby resident, Peni Ropeti, of Sinamoga, says they have had to put up with the poor condition of their road for months.
“It’s really bad when it rains,” he says. “Many families including us can’t drive up to our homes because of the flooding and the damaged road."
“I strongly urge the government to fix our road please. This is the only road to our house and we can’t avoid having to drive on it because we have to get home and this is the only way.”
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According to Mr. Ropeti, the last time the road was tar-sealed was in 2010.
“The state of the road as you can see is the result of two things. It is the poor quality of workmanship by the company that fixed it and the result of heavy rain.”
Mr. Ropeti says the road has cost them a lot of money.
“Our cars are being fixed almost every month,” he says. “The road is so bad and multiple trips up here for us that live here can really cause damage to cars. It has cost us a great amount of money with fixing those cars.”
The father says some families have tried to bury the “huge potholes” with stones as they await government action.
“Taxi drivers drop off villagers down the bottom and are left to walk the distance to their homes. Some of them are elderly people and babies.”
Another resident, Popoa’i Fuimaono, supports Mr. Ropeti.
“The road is one problem and the broken cars are another,” she says.
“One of our cars is at the mechanic workshop and the other is following that one very soon. "
“So it would be very nice to have the roads fixed since it’s not only for us, it’s for others who use our road as a shortcut to get to the other side of Palisi.”
Mika Filo, from Sinamoga, shares the same concern.
The elderly father said many families living in the area have difficulty in holding family functions because of the road’s poor state.
“The road is so bad that some families who have fa’alavelave decide to park their cars down the bottom and walk up there,” he says.
“For our family, the road has become a daily problem with our cars needing monthly repairs. We have children that need to get picked up and dropped off and the same with those who work in our household."
“The road has become a daily problem for our family in terms of having to fix the cars and get new car parts…the only solution to all these problems is fixing the road.”
Attempts to get a comment from the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure as well as the Land Transport Authority yesterday were unsuccessful.
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