And in other news, the day Guinea Grass residents had been waiting for finally came today. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development broke ground on their road - which means by this time next year, they will have an almost fully rehabilitated roadway. As it stands right now, they have a dusty dirt road which is difficult to navigate. And while it took some time to get started, this project will now change the lives of 9,000 villagers. Courtney Menzies was at the groundbreaking ceremony today and has this story.

All five miles of road connecting Guinea Grass to Tower Hill will be fully renovated in the next year. It's a major relief for the villagers who have to contend with dust when it's sunny and mud when it rains. It's a project that's been years in the making. In fact, Area Rep Jose Mai says he's been telling the prime minister about it before they were elected.

Jose Mai, Area Rep., Orange Walk South
"There have been 4 area reps before me. Each one of these area reps has promised this road to these people. I look at this project as important. You don't play politics with people. You get the job done from before elections when we were campaigning. We're planning our campaigning Prime Minister and I told him, Prime Minister. It is time for these people to get there road paved along with San Estevan, San Estevan and Guinea Grass."

"Living in these conditions is unacceptable in 2024. Living, I mean the quality of life and all the houses have no color except white because it's dusty, when it rains it is all muddy"

And finally today, four years later, he, along with Minister Julius Espat and the Orange Walk, East era rep Kevin Bernard broke ground on the road. According to Espat. Every Area has their requests. But there were at last able to get to Mai's.

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development
"Lots of work and every, every Area Rep. makes their requests. And as you are aware, we have hundreds of miles of road. So we sit as a group and we try to prioritize and we get them out one by one. And what we did here was we paved the village inside the village first that was done by MIDH staff."

And then we were maintaining this road. We put in all the sub base. We compacted it and we maintained it for a couple of years until we got the opportunity to do this. As Minister Mai had mentioned, there were two projects that were important for the two area reps, one for San Estevan and this one and also a minister Kevin Bernard had gotten some work in his villages too.

So we finished San Estevan. We have completed the work for Minister Kevin and now we are here and to complete the promise that we made to the Honorable Abelardo .

And Mai explained that this road is essential because of the thousands that use it every day and because its produce reaches different markets around the country.

Jose Mai,Area Rep., Orange Walk South
"Many Teachers in this village travel from Orange Walk to here. Can you can you can you can you picture the amount of problems along the route to get here? And so also very important is the amount of food and food products that come out of the te area it is just tremendous. You stand up there for 15 minutes and you count the amount of veichles that pass you will be surprised."

So it is time for us to do what we are elected to do.

Julius Espat,Minister of Infrastructure Development
"We are dealing with about 9000 people in one village. And then you have shipyard and you have the other. It's very important. All the villages we historically have not been given the respect that they deserve. And our mandate as this government was to invest in the rural communities. And we have been doing so from the day we got elected."

"And this is just a continuation of that plan."

The total cost of the project is approximately $3.6 million.