Some residents in Region Eight have been depending on the rains for their daily water supply since last June, opposition party AFC said yesterday, while calling for “emergency interventions” in some hinterland communities.
“The Hinterland regions continue to be affected by many issues and situations that could be resolved if some attention is paid and systems put in place to alleviate them,” AFC parliamentarian Valerie Garrido-Lowe said at a news conference yesterday.
Since last June/July, Garrido-Lowe said, the residents of Mahdia and Campbelltown have been depending on the rains for their daily water supply and they are becoming anxious with the approaching dry weather.
According to her, the Salbora water main needs to be repaired and despite reports to Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) and a claim by its officials that workmen are in the area to fix it, residents are still not getting any water through their pipes.
It was noted that AFC parliamentarian Eula Marcello, along with other councilors, did a “walk about” in Campbelltown and obtained signatures from many of the residents who are requesting that GWI go into the region and get the necessary repairs done. It was also noted that many residents of the Campbelltown do not have pipelines running to their homes and many of them also do not have electricity.
Garrido-Lowe also lamented the conditions at the Mahdia School Dorms, which, she said, are in a deplorable state. “They have no running water due to broken guttering and broken pipes,” she said, while noting that regional administration staff visited last year and promised the guttering would be fixed the next day but no one visited afterward.
The steps of the dorms are made of hollow blocks and are breaking away, she said, adding that the gate is falling apart. Other than the grass, she noted, the yard is very dirty and because there is no drainage the water piles up. They also need 20 more beds in the dorms, she said. “These are conditions that no child should live under. It is a danger to their health and physical wellbeing. Emergency interventions are needed at this dormitory,” she added.
Garrido-Lowe noted too that in November, marijuana was found in the school dorms at Paramakatoi, resulting in 20 students being expelled from the dorm and three, the traffickers, expelled from the school.
“Parents are very worried and are asking for a chance for their children to complete their secondary schooling.
The children have nowhere to stay but the dorms and parents of some of the students wrote the education department asking for forgiveness and a chance for their children to stay in school,” she said, while adding that the problem with marijuana has its roots in the mountains of the region, where villagers suspect that it is grown.
“The AFC, while we do not condone the use of illicit substances, is asking the Ministry of Education to address the matter of reversing the expulsion. We support any reasonable action that will allow the children the opportunity to write their exams,” she added.
Meanwhile, in Region One, Garrido-Lowe lamented the state of the Kumaka/Kwebana road, saying that it still remains a trail that is difficult to traverse during the rains—some 50 years after then Moruca village captain John Ferreira started cutting a trail from Kumaka to Kwebana.
She noted that Moruca has a population of about 10,000 people and business is increasing, while Kwebana has a population of several hundred and there travel daily to Kumaka or to the hospital or to Georgetown. “They have to travel that road in whatever condition it is,” she said, while adding that although $70M was spent last year to repair the road, as soon as the rains come it “goes right back to the terrible state where vehicles get stuck while travelling.”
Garrido-Lowe said residents are fed up. “It is time that they get a wide, paved road that can last for years. The communities all along the road right up to Kwebana will be enhanced, the transportation business will increase; business, on the whole will increase,” she said.
She also lamented that the contract for the repairs in the area is always given to persons from the coast and these contractors do not employ persons from the communities. “The AFC insists that if the Morucians cannot get the contract themselves, then they must be able to get some jobs at least,” she stressed.
