Situated almost on the outskirts of Georgetown along the East Coast of Demerara is the community of Vigilance. Its neighbours are Friendship and Strathspey, and although it is home to people of various ethnicities and faiths, the majority of the population, residents said, is African and most people were Christian.
There are several churches in the area, but no mandir or mosque.
A stroll through the community in the afternoon revealed a quiet environment, except for a group of children who were enjoying a game of marbles on the street. Space for recreational facilities is absent, this newspaper was told, and this is the reason why most people and their children spend their time in their homes and yards.
The main occupation of residents in the area is cash-crop farming, although a few are employed by the private or public sectors. We caught up with Rakesh who plants celery and callalu. He had just come out of his yard where the vegetable beds are when this newspaper visited the area. He has been a farmer for the past fifteen years but does construction work between crops to sustain his family.
Rakesh said that he loves to farm but the only thing that affects him is the flooding which occurs because of the bad drainage in the area. He said he has to build his farm beds high to withstand the flooding and has to dig drains in his yard so that the water is released when it rains. “No good drainage at all we ain’t get,” he said, “we does gah dig we own drains… you ain’t see how the water stop up deh?”
Work on his market garden begins