Kurzeme residents demand better roads and protected small schools

Residents of Kurzeme want politicians to improve rural roads and preserve small schools, LSM reports. The region has a stronger economy than other parts of Latvia, but residents face similar concerns, including the depopulation of rural areas and fears about access to the sea.

In Lower Kurzeme, residents also hope politicians will help bring calm to an anxious era.

For people in Dunika Parish, the main problem is the condition of local roads. Laima Veidemane, who heads the local residents’ council and runs the organic farm Šuķi, said the parish has around 500 residents.

Dunika Parish was previously part of Rucava Municipality and is now part of the larger South Kurzeme Municipality. Veidemane lives two kilometres from the parish administration in Sikšņi, 37 kilometres from the municipal centre in Grobiņa and five or six kilometres from Lithuania.

A local road was rebuilt with European Union funding in 2018. Veidemane called it a “lifeline to Skoda,” a Lithuanian town where local farmers buy machinery, spare parts and other goods. Residents of Dunika, Rucava and Bārta parishes travel there on Saturdays to shop at the market.

However, Veidemane said Lithuanian companies that bought gravel quarries in Ječi, Liepieni and Ozolmeži have since used the renovated road continuously to transport gravel. She compared the large gravel trucks to “Lithuanian tanks” and said residents have occasionally organised protests when the situation becomes intolerable.

Residents are also frustrated that work has not begun on roughly 20 kilometres of gravel road that would connect Rucava, Rāķiški and other villages with a proper road.