A seven-kilometer stretch of red dirt road linking Ka Choun commune to Veun Sai district in Ratanakiri province has turned into a total nightmare for locals. Local media report that the rains have transformed the pothole-ridden track into a massive mud pit. Cars regularly slip into deep ruts and bog down, leaving stranded drivers with nothing to do but wait for a villager to drag them out with a hand tractor.
A local motorbike mechanic along the route complained that the road is unusable rain or shine. He pointed the finger at heavy trucks hauling sand from the Sesan River to Banlung town, running fully loaded back and forth every single day. Sand pit owners tried dumping small gravel into the worst holes, but it did nothing to smooth out the surface. Instead, the sharp stones are now slicing open and blowing out the tires of passing motorbikes. One villager said taking a car out on the road means getting stuck two or three times in a single trip, turning a simple journey into a half-day ordeal from early morning until noon just to break free.
Even the Ka Choun commune chief couldn't hide his frustration, admitting the road is in atrocious shape. He shared that he gets stuck on his way to district meetings just like everyone else. Commune authorities previously asked two sand pit operators to hold off on their transport runs. Although the operators brought in a few truckloads of red dirt and gravel to fill the holes two or three times, the patches stood no chance against the heavy traffic.
Local officials noted that the red dirt road falls under a project by the Provincial Department of Rural Development. The commune has already filed a report, hoping upper management will urgently dispatch heavy machinery to scrape the surface flat and pack down the deep craters. Otherwise, delivery trucks and vehicles carrying sick residents to the hospital will remain completely stuck halfway.
