By Aaron B. Nemah
The lives of more than 600 residents of Yoopedi Community in Harper District, Maryland County, are being endangered following the collapsed of the only bridge that links communities.
The wooden bridge, which links the community to the main road leading to Harper City, has become weak, rotten and dangerous.
Vehicles can no longer cross it. Even motorcyclists are afraid to ride across.
They now stop, get down, and push their motorcycles slowly across the shaking planks while pedestrians struggle to balance on the damaged structure.
Residents say, the bridge is no longer just an inconvenience, but a threat to life, to trade, to education and to receive proper health care.
Yoopedi Community Chief, Othello S. Freeman, confirmed how locals have fought to repair the bridge with their own small contributions.
”We have contributed to buy planks, and sticks to maintain this bridge, because we cannot allow the community to be completely cut off.”
Freeman said, families who already struggle to feed themselves have donated money, nails, planks and labour to repair the bridge.
But those temporary repairs are no longer working. The woods are rotten from the rain, and years of neglect.
The supports underneath has weakened. Each repair lasts a shorter time than the one before.
“The woods we used are now rotten, and the situation has become dangerous every day for commuters.”
Freeman confirmed how some residents have already fallen from the bridge when they tried to crossover.
He said, one male resident died after falling from the structure, because no one was around to give him immediate help.
Freeman warned that if nothing is done quickly, more accidents will happen, especially among commuters who cross the bridge daily with heavy loads on their heads.
Yoopedi is a farming community. Residents depend on the bridge to carry cassava, plantain, palm oil, vegetables and other farm produce to the main market in Harper.
