-part of $30M education outlay for Region Six
Students of the Mibicuri Secondary School at Black Bush Polder will soon benefit from an information technology (IT) laboratory as part of a $30M allocation to boost the education sector in Region Six.
Regional Chairman, Zulfikar Mustapha told Stabroek News in a recent interview that the contract has already been awarded and that the work is expected to commence shortly.
The school has already benefited from a donation of a number of computers from Metro Office Supplies. He said that apart from constructing the laboratory, the region would be responsible for providing the electricity and maintaining the IT centre.
Further upgrading of the sector includes the rehabilitation of the Crabwood Creek Primary and the Canje Secondary Schools at a cost of over $4.6M each and the Lighttown Nursery School where $1.7M is being spent. The work on the three buildings the chairman said is 90% completed.
He also mentioned that $3.6M is being spent on teachers’ quarters at Siparuta. During last year, he said the Orealla Primary School was expanded to accommodate students at the secondary level while a dormitory had been recently set up. The chairman mentioned that a new nursery school would be built at Gibraltar and another at Number 78 Village to ease overcrowding at the other schools in the area.
He pointed out that the region has undertaken to upgrade the health sector, roads, drainage and irrigation services as well as bridges.
In the area of health, he said, the Mibicuri Cottage Hospital at Black Bush Polder is being rehabilitated at a cost of $5M and that 50% of the work has been completed so far. A water problem that has been plaguing the New Amsterdam Hospital for a long time would soon be taken care of with the construction of a new reservoir.
Further, he said a $7.4M project to install safe disposal boxes at all the hospitals in the region would soon commence.
In the agricultural sector, a few wooden bridges would be replaced by concrete structures while a timber bridge costing $6.4M would be constructed at Number 62 Village. A timber revetment costing $4.5 M would also be built at Crabwood Creek.
He also mentioned that $20M has been awarded for bridge projects and that construction is taking place at Number 60/61 and Number 69/70 Villages Side Line Dam, Number 65 Essex canal, the four polders in Black Bush Polder, Number 47/48 and at Crabwood Creek.
According to him some of the projects have been put on hold to accommodate farmers until the end of the crop as they would have no other access.
He said too that work is expected to start on a bridge at Orealla while a contract would soon be awarded for a bridge at Canakabora Creek.
According to Mustapha, farmers at Black Bush Polder who were affected by flooding would now benefit from improved drainage with the establishment of an ‘RC’ culvert at Wellington Park. New drainage and irrigation channels would also be constructed across the region.
Meanwhile, after making frequent requests for the potholes on the East Bank Berbice highway to be filled with “hot mix,” drivers are satisfied that this is finally being done.
The drivers had complained that the authorities had been using “bauxite capping and chip seal to patch the road” and that whenever it rained the materials would be washed away and the road deteriorated.
While drivers are pleased with the improvement they said the entire road is in dire need of an upgrade. The chairman responded that there are plans to make representation to the Ministry of Public Works for the road to be fixed like the East and West Canje thoroughfare.
He said that because of the unpredictable weather patterns other road projects have been put on hold.
