In the same way it has been said that Jamaica has the most churches (and rum bars) per square mile, it can be said, without any chance of refutation, that this country has the most potholes per square mile. Especially when there have been persistent showers of rain, numerous potholes — from the small to the cavernous — emerge causing much discomfort, danger to life, costly repairs, as well as replacement of motor vehicle parts, not to mention utter frustration.

The sad truth is that potholes on Jamaica’s roads has been a perennial issue that won’t go away — notwithstanding frequent roadblocks and angry protests by fed-up citizens, including transport operators for whom this continues to be a most costly affair.

Who remembers a certain Government minister’s hollow promise that by 2003 Jamaica would be pothole free?

What is most amazing is that, in many cases, roads that had just been recently repaved overnight become a motorist’s nightmare. This gives any well-thinking and discerning Jamaican reason to assume that the quality of work was poor. Compare those roads built and maintained by the bauxite companies, for example, or by the Chinese in terms of our celebrated highways while those constructed by Jamaican contractors are usually very brittle and pothole ridden.

It is well known (and accepted) that corruption is one of the main reasons for this recurring problem. Then there is the lack of effective civil engineering applications as a result of too many incompetent and uncaring public officials and party hacks who oftentimes are the beneficiaries of these contracts by virtue of their incestuous relationships with the governing party.

Some years ago, a parish councillor told me of a troubling experience he had dealing with a man who, through his partisan affiliation, had been given a contract to fix a kerb and channel area, as well as replace some culverts. It is no secret that this is very necessary to prevent flooding or the settling of water on roads, which will lead to perforation and, hence, the emergence of potholes. The councillor said that on a visit to the work site he urged the contractor to do a good job so that there would be no need for any repairs in the nearby future. The man replied with a conspiratorial grin: “But, Boss, if me do dat, how me a go survive? Me haffi fix it in such a way dat more sooner dan later dem will have to call me back to fix it again. A so di ting set.”

Regrettably, cheap, shoddy workmanship has become the order of the day when it comes to Government-contracted work, and increasingly even with respect to work done by private contractors. Cutting corners, using inferior material, avoiding professional input, and providing little supervision of subcontractors are the order of the day with respect to how projects funded by the public purse are implemented and managed. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) and various parliamentary oversight committees, the Jamaican taxpayer continues to be the victim of graft and corruption. A practice that is akin to extortion, if you ask me.

Over these many decades, during various election campaigns, promises by both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) that they will tackle corruption among those who benefit from the public purse continue to be a sick joke. Clearly neither is most serious about getting value for taxpayers’ money, especially when it comes to road building and repairs. In any event, it is the norm that both parties, in one way or another, benefit from kickbacks and other ‘gifts’ in relation to the awarding of government contracts. And roadworks continue to be one of the most lucrative of these various pork-barrel activities.

Annually, billions of dollars are expended on road construction and rehabilitation. Now that we are in the throes of the hurricane season, which will more than likely punish us as well as bless us with many showers, it can be expected that the island’s roads will, over time, be littered with potholes. And part of this sad truth is that lives are frequently lost because of road crashes caused when speeding motorists set out to avoid driving through these treacherous potholes.

And, as been mentioned before, the prevalence of these pothole-ridden roads is the damage done to motor vehicles, particularly taxis and minibuses. Operators of these vehicles have to constantly use much of their income from carrying passengers to dealing with front-end damage in particular. Private motorists, too, have been complaining a great deal about losing their brand-new tyres that are wrecked by some of these menacing potholes, some of which appear overnight.

Let’s face it, the proliferation of potholes has also adversely affected the nation’s productivity, as too many man-hours are wasted on our roads as motorists have to slow down as they bob and weave by one pothole after another.

Drain and gully cleaning and bushing, which are oftentimes referred to as “bollo work” given out at Christmastime and in the wake of election campaigns, is another travesty. Millions of dollars are expended, but at the end of the day, whenever it rains, flooding easily destroys the road surfaces because of poor construction and design. A million-dollar question that the National Works Agency (NWA) should answer is: Are civil engineers assigned to all government-contracted roadworks? And, if so, who monitors their performance?

This pothole plague is akin to being a national crisis that must be, once and for all, addressed by the powers that be. A national protocol must be established along bipartisan lines as to how road repairs should be carried out in terms of quality control, transparency, and accountability. Potholes, like crime and corruption, have for too long remained a public nuisance to the general populace. Our respective leaders, in the meantime, have for the most part ignored this vexing issue while paying only lip service when it suits them.

Meanwhile, the tragedy is that aggrieved and injured citizens can expect no recompense or redress from an uncaring Government (both local and central), so we must all continue to pursue this seeming national pastime of dodging potholes. A practice that may well be the death of us!

Lloyd B Smith has been involved full-time in Jamaican media for the past 44 years. He has also served as a Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. He hails from western Jamaica, where he is popularly known as the Governor. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or lbsmith4@gmail.com.