In Kourou, after years of waiting, the Wayabo road is finally passable with a brand new coating over 14 kilometers. In this agricultural area located between the space city and Macouria, a dispute dating back several years exists between the town hall and the local Wayabo farmers' association.
Jean-Gilles Assard / LP
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Published on January 13, 2025 at 6:58 a.m.,
updated January 13, 2025 at 7:02 a.m.
Recently, every day, around 6 a.m., in Wayabo, the children board a bus to go to school in Kourou. Their parents had been waiting for this for years.
Watch the report from Guyane La 1ère:
The route of Wayabo
“It’s a relief compared to a few months ago when we had to drop the children off at the end of the street, we wasted time and we damaged our cars because the road was really in very bad condition,” says Stéphane Marchewska, resident of Wayabo.
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©Jean-Gilles Assard
Since the end of last year, the roadway has been rehabilitated with a coating over 14 kilometers. No more impassable road, potholes and other dangers on this penetrating route passing through the territories of Macouria and Kourou and serving agricultural plots.
The residents are delighted, even if the project took time to come to fruition. “At the end of 2019, the mayor, the president of the CTG and the public land establishment of Guyana signed an agreement to return the road to the municipality, explains Jean-Paul Malaganne, general administrative director of technical services at Kourou town hall. We could then start working on it.”
The work began in December 2023. Costing 3 million 500 thousand euros, it was financed by Europe and the State.
Today, this Wayabo road delights opponents of the waste storage facility project, but it remains worrying for local farmers.
“We pushed with Europe to have a road and get farmers out of isolation, and now we are being made to understand that it is perhaps for the installation of a storage area for non-hazardous waste, explains Raphaël Stobinsky, president of the Kouroucian association of Wayabo farmers. Knowing that this road was financed by Europe and by CNES.”
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©Jean-Gilles Assard
For his part, Jean-Paul Malaganne, general administrative director of technical services at Kourou town hall, wants to be reassuring. “The road was made primarily to allow farmers to access their agricultural properties, it is something that was conceptualized long before this project was known”he assures.
In any case, there are still several kilometers of track to be paved, in order to serve the hundred or so farmers and encourage the expansion of this agricultural area.
