February 6, 2011 | BY KAIETEUR NEWS
Some three years after the opening of the Berbice River Bridge, persons who operated businesses and shops along Matthew Allen Road, New Amsterdam and at the Rosignol Stelling roads are feeling the squeeze even more to earn a daily living.
When Kaieteur News visited the New Amsterdam side earlier this week, what used to be the hustle and bustle of Matthew Allen Road is now akin to a ghost town.
Where crowds of people once gathered at the corner of the many snack shops and beer bars, today just a person or two can be seen reading a newspaper or smoking a cigarette.
Indeed, life has changed for the vendors and shop owners some three years after the bridge.
Indeed, life has changed drastically for these two thoroughfares– New Amsterdam and Rosignol Stelling Roads. There is no need for persons to visit these areas, ever since the Berbice River Bridge was commissioned and opened in December 2008. All or most traffic now traverse the bridge.
While life has become much easier for some who find it easier and faster to use the much- touted floating bridge, life for the snackette vendors has become a living hell. It was observed that the majority of the huts and snackettes along the two stelling roads have been closed down. It was evident that the owners had given up on making a living there.
Perhaps they operated a few months after the ferries stopped operating and observed that they were not doing any kind of business, so they packed up and left, leaving the their stalls as stark reminders of what once went on there.
There are just about five businesses operating on the New Amsterdam side while just three or so operate on the other side of the river. There were dozens of businesses on both sides prior to December 2008.
Just over two years later, tensions are still high. Snackette owners are still furious with the authorities for not putting them somewhere else to sell or ensuring that they had another means to earn their daily bread. They had been promised other locations to operate their snackettes in 2008 even after the authorities has spoken with them, even took photographs of their shops.
“This Berbice bridge killed the whole Berbice,” one shop owner said. She said that a few vendors had remained after the bridge opened. She said that she remained because, “I gotta hustle still; I get a mortgage to pay.”
She said she has been doing 90 per cent less business since the bridge opened. “Whole day you here and you ain’t even sell $5,000”, she lamented.
One other snackette owner posited that the Avinash chain store located on the same ferry road is suffering immensely. When Kaieteur News went into the store, one could count the number of persons shopping inside on the fingers of one hand. One customer representative was at the entrance and seemed to be on the look out for customers.
The scene on the Rosignol side was no different. Save for a beer garden that was located some distance from the Rosignol Ferry Stelling and some music that was playing there, that area seemed abandoned as well. Huge padlocks and bars on what used to be snackettes and stalls greeted the eye.
Sisto’s Snackette on the Rosignol side is still open for business. Egg balls, hamburgers, channa , soft drinks and beers can still be had from there. But where are the customers? The scene is common to other snack shops, there are no customers.
The stellings are still used today, since the pontoon service operates thrice per day for school children and workers but the vendors said that this is not enough to give their businesses the economic jolt they so badly need.
Life remains a daily struggle for the mostly house- wives and single mothers who continue in the face of adversity to make a living on the two stelling roads in Berbice, even where the prospects of such are dim. (Leon Suseran)