Flying gravel dilemma…whom to point finger at ?

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Yesterday I drove to the chalets area and returned the same day. I do not know why it came to my mind to count the number of tiny gravels that hit the windshield of my vehicle. I counted 40 and stopped counting when I discovered one of them had caused a big crack in the windshield.

The problem of flying gravel has turned Kuwait’s highways into a camel race track and unfit for modern cars which is primarily a moral and cultural problem before looking at it as a problem caused by a cheating contractor or a negligent supervisor.

After asking more than one road expert, contractor and government official it became clear to me that the reason for the problem has remained unresolved. Despite all government’s promises to the citizens and threatening various road construction companies nobody has a solution or rather an answer to why this problem recurs again and again.

One puts the blame on the asphalt blend and the accompanying manipulation, another holds the contractors responsible, the third  points a finger of accusation at the supervisors hired by the Public Roads Authority, the fourth finds fault in the bidding system and the fifth thinks there is no law to hold anyone accountable for the situation and the sixth blames the General Traffic Department for insisting on opening the newly asphalted roads twelve hours earlier so that it becomes usable.

The seventh blames the weather and the eighth believes that the secret lies in the poor periodical maintenance, while the ninth believes that the responsibility is limited to the refusal of the Public Road Authority to use the modern materials needed for the cohesion of asphalt, such as anti- stripping, especially after the global climate change and the different weather conditions in Kuwait today unlike what it was 20 or 30 years ago.

Another believes that the asphalt is ready for use and is often sprayed at a much lower temperature than it should be. The eleventh sees that the reason is in the manipulation of the Central Laboratory of Roads, Another says the reason is in selecting inexperienced and inefficient companies to carry out road projects which are subjected to political interventions.

The last one says stopping the work or the supervisor leaving the site to perform prayer gives room for manipulation … and there are several other reasons.

I have come to the conclusion that all these reasons are true, but the problem is that the parties responsible for them do not meet each other, and if they do, there is no room for cooperation between them, so we are in this dilemma.

The fundamental problem therefore concerns the culture of society not just the result of a specific shortcoming. If we don’t change this culture, it is difficult to find a definitive solution to the problem, therefore, it is necessary that a top and specialized body hold a meeting with those who are concerned with the problem of the destruction of roads, and impose cooperation between them so that none of them will have an excuse in future.

It is also necessary to stop talking about the abolition of the Public Road Authority, but to reduce some of its responsibilities and attach the sewage sector to it, instead of giving it to the Ministry of Public Works.

Issues look easy to be solved, but in the absence of a decision or a desire to solve the problem, each side will continue to place responsibility on the other, destruction of the roads will continue and add to it looting and moral sabotage.

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By Ahmad Al-Sarraf

This news has been read 12828 times!