While delivering the feature address at the commissioning ceremony at Sixth Street, Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara yesterday, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that the phenomenal growth of the area, with the anticipated opening of key facilities in the area including two banks and a gas station, has shown how the community has evolved over the years.
He said that the administration is working to have major initiatives to catapult development adding that such initiatives are to generate money for the economy.
Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, told the gathering which included several residents of the community, that the administration believes strongly in providing services such as water, education and health in an equitable manner to all Guyanese. He said that the residents in the community would recall the hardships they have experienced over the years in accessing potable water, adding that Diamond was identified by the President as an area which required the intervention of the authorities where the provision of water is concerned.
Ali said that the water sector is currently harnessing the results of a turnaround plan which aims to identify critical investment in the provision of water. He said that some $4B has been expended on the water sector in 2009, and from this sum, $70M has been spent on development of the Diamond area. These sums of money are a portion of the more than $455M which has been invested on the East Bank of Demerara and which will also cater for the inter-linking of water facilities at Agricola and at South Ruimveldt.
Ali also addressed the issue of wastage of water, noting that a number of taps in some areas have been left unattended, including at construction sites, while persons have even proceeded to break pipes. In this regard, Ali said that investment by the authorities in the sector was for the benefit of everyone as he urged those in attendance to conserve water.
The new facility, a 690-ft borehole, was designed and constructed to cater for a 50% expansion from its present capacity in terms of network and persons who will require its services. Construction of the facility, which will provide the 4000 residents of the community with potable water, was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Caribbean Development Bank, the Guyana Water Inc, Government of Guyana and the Basic Needs Trust Fund. The latter provided some $55M towards the construction of the facility.
