Roads in Al Wakra are a death trap, say residents lamenting that their repeated pleas to the authorities concerned to improve civic amenities in this fast-expanding satellite township has fallen on deaf ears. And, young motorists, some of whom drive recklessly endangering their own and others’ lives, are a nightmare in a township which has witnessed many deaths in road mishaps in the recent past. A resident, Yusuf Al Mahmoud, said that the situation on the roads here was so alarming that he lost his brother and a cousin in accidents near one of the main roundabouts. It is unfortunate that the demise of the business and trade minister in a road accident here recently has brought the issue of reckless driving by young people, bad roads and civic amenities to the fore, rue residents. There is only one arterial road which links Doha to Al Wakra and since it extends beyond and leads up to Messaieed, it is always crowded with heavy vehicles which ply recklessly. Other motorists too drive at high speed on the main road while the condition of streets in the inner areas remains pathetic, a number of residents said. The roads are accident-prone and there is hardly any supervision from traffic authorities. There is only one radar camera installed on the entire Doha-Al Wakra stretch of the highway and motorists know where it is located so they reduce speed when approaching it. Al Mahmoud told a local Arabic daily that there was the need for the authorities to pay urgent attention to the pathetic condition of roads and improve them, besides increasing supervision by the traffic police. Another resident, Ahmed Salem, told the daily that people’s repeated pleas to improve civic amenities here and check reckless driving on arterial roads have been falling on deaf ears. “We have been screaming for more than four years now for help literally from rooftops but to no avail. No one heeds our plight,” he rued. Another major problem facing the area, according to some residents, is that single workers are concentrated in residential areas in large numbers. This is creating a lot of social problems since families live in these areas. “We are facing a situation of cultural clash, aside from having to bear noise and air pollution from heavy vehicles,” http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=May2009&file=Local_News2009050972412.xml

Follow us on our social media channels: @ILQlive @ILQlive @ILoveQtr ILoveQatar