KUWAIT: After most of Kuwait’s roads were damaged due to heavy rains in November, some of them have been repaired, while others haven’t. The ministry of public works, which is in charge of maintaining the roads, is currently repaving main highways and roads, but many smaller roads are still damaged.
The ministry announced a hotline number after the floods so people can report serious damages to roads. But it seems that there is inconsistency in dealing with complaints, depending on the area. Kuwait Times reported a damaged road in Salwa, and it was fixed in about 10 days. A social media influencer also showed a very quick response to his complaint, with the road repaired in just one day.
Kuwait Times visited Salmiya and Jleeb and found huge potholes in some streets, which can be very dangerous for motorists, especially at night. For some reason the hotline was not working, so Kuwait Times posted the complaint on the official webpage of the ministry of public works. And to make sure the officials in charge at the ministry deal with the complaint, the complaint was also posted on the WhatsApp number of the ministry with the full address of the locations and pictures taken by Kuwait Times.
Three locations of damaged roads were sent – two in Salmiya and one in Jleeb. The staff operating the WhatsApp emergency number responded after about two hours and wrote “the complaint was passed to the department in charge, which will deal with it soon”. The complaints were sent on March 12, 2019, and till date, only one of the locations has been fixed, in Salmiya’s block 3. The others in Salmiya’s block 10 and Jleeb still haven’t been repaired.
By Nawara Fattahova
