Georgetown: residents of Belle West, Canal No. 2 on the West Bank of Demerara recently chose to have a concrete access bridge, along with the rehabilitation of four main roads in their community. The decision was made during a meeting between residents and Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali at the Belle West Multi-Purpose Centre in Region 3.
Minister Ali informed residents of the current administration’s focus, and its commitment to establishing housing for Guyanese.
He explained that ownership of homes enables economic and social empowerment, and pointed out also that with housing comes development of water and public works. He further noted that home ownership gives persons a sense of fulfillment which cuts across political, ethnic and religious lines.
The minister alluded to the fact that in Region 3, alone, more than $25B was spent between 2000 and 2014 on housing schemes. He also pointed to the commitment to complete a new access bridge and new access road for the Parfait Harmonie housing scheme, both of which have been completed.
Acknowledging that challenges have surfaced through development, the Minister pointed out that if these challenges were not met, Guyana would be in the same situation prior to 1992, where more than 285,000 families were squatting and not having access to home ownership or house lots.
Minister Ali noted also that in Belle West, $1.5B was spent on infrastructural development in Phases One and Two. This is in addition to $120M for the construction of 54 Core homes in the Belle West area. However, he acknowledged that there are still issues to be resolved hence the meeting with members of the community.
According to Minister Ali, the Belle West community has been identified as one of the major areas set for transformation. In this regard, he told the residents of the various infrastructural development projects to be implemented in the Belle West community which would utilise some $150M. Among these would be the building of a new concrete access bridge, and four roads to be upgraded to asphalt surface.
The minister informed the residents that by August 2014, an assessment of the employment opportunities of the community would also be done.
He pointed to the hopeful eventuality of the laying of a fibre optic cable which would enable a call centre to bring employment to hundreds of residents of the community. He pointed out that while the Parliamentary Opposition had prevented the laying of the cable, Government will still conduct talks with other agencies to continue work in this regard.
Residents did give voice to their concerns among which were the bad roads in Phase 2 of the community and drainage issues.
Of great concern also was the high cost of transportation into the community from the West Bank Public Road head. This has long been an issue plaguing residents who are made to pay exorbitant sums by drivers plying from the main road into the community.
Some persons also pointed to the issue of street lighting, security and indiscriminate garbage dumping in the canals.
As the meeting concluded, Minister Ali gave a commitment for a Hymac to be made available to assist in the drainage issues and for an engineer to assess the roads’ condition.
He promised to return soon to the community to follow up on the concerns of the residents.
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