Driving now possible in "Walking County"

After two attempts and 30 years of waiting vehicles can now drive over a new steel road bridge across the muddy banks of the Nu River in Liberia’s south east Grand Kru County, giving aid workers their first access to one of the most underdeveloped and least known parts of the country. Cars could not previously reach the interior of the Grand Kru winning it the name “Walking County” among locals. And the main town, Barclayville which lies some 600km south east of the capital Monrovia, is cut off by the Nu River on three sides and the ocean to the west. Two previous attempts at bridging the river in the 1970s failed. "This is welcome news for us in the humanitarian community and we hope that many community-based organisations will move in quickly to assist the people of Grand Kru County", said Simeon Wureh, head of the Grand Kru Development Committee on Wednesday. Civil war in Liberia between 1989 and 2003 decimated the region’s cattle breeding and pineapple production industries. By 2005 food and water shortages were rife in an area once known for its agriculture, forcing locals to trek for hundreds of kilometres to find supplies. Critically ill patients had to be carried out to Pleebo town in Maryland County, a tough trek of over 200 kilometres through dense forest. "The construction of the bridge will allow access for humanitarian agencies and government to improve economic vitality, and restore basic services... while allowing isolated inhabitants of the area a link to broader society, markets, sources of food and health care", said the American Embassy in a statement announcing the opening. Construction of the bridge was paid for with money donated by the US at a cost of US $1.3 million.