By Jeff Trotman
After months of supporting Ituni and Kwakwani residents for better roads between their communities and Linden and ridiculing Baishanlin for damaging the Linden/Kwakwani Road, the Region Ten Democratic Council (RDC) is being ignored as tangible moves are being made to fix the road.
The matter came to the fore when Regional Chair-man Sharma Solomon updated RDC councillors about a meeting that he participated in at the Workers Club earlier this month, with over 150 Kwakwani residents.
“Councillors how do we get involved in a matter that we are being clearly omitted from and we want to see happen anyhow?” Solomon asked at the monthly statutory meeting of the Region Ten RDC.
Noting that the Workers Club gathering had been organised and chaired by Councillor Adolph, Solomon said many Kwakwani based loggers, who had invited him to that meeting, were absent and had chosen, instead, to go Georgetown for a meeting at the Umana Yana that discussed the road rehabilitation to be spearheaded by Baishanlin.
According to Solomon, when Baishanlin realised that the community was mobilising to bring pressure on the company, it influenced some of the loggers, who were expected to attend the meeting in Kwakwani to attend the Georgetown meeting, instead, and sign a petition, stating that all is well in Kwakwani and Baishanlin has done a lot for the people of that community.
Meanwhile, one concerned Kwakwani resident, had expressed disappointment to Stabroek News that an influential logger in the area was able to hire a big bus and entice Kwakwani residents to attend the meeting in Georgetown where they commended Baishanlin for being a good corporate citizen.
However, what emerged from the meeting in Kwakwani was that the residents are disappointed in what is taking place and they put forward four things that they wanted: (1) That the agreement between the government and Baishanlin be known to the Region so that the people of the Region will know how they and the government can benefit from the contractual arrangements; (2) Baishanlin and all the other loggers and big contractors, who use and damage the road, should be involved in the maintenance of the road; (3) that the loggers be given a better price for their wood; (4) and the road users association should be established to bargain with the company to fix the road.
Solomon said letters had been sent to the Guyana Forestry Commission, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Ministry of Agriculture for all farmers, loggers and miners in that area to pull together with the bus drivers and community representatives for a broad based approach to fixing the road.
He also said, “the people based on their activism and their action would have provoked the company to respond on two of four matters” and although many of the loggers disappointed the residents by attending the Georgetown meeting instead of the one at Kwakwani, the residents still pursued the matter of the loggers getting a better price for their produce to the extent that a marketing unit has been established to bargain with the company for a better price.
In relation to the agreement, Solomon said a request has been made to the Minister of Natural Resources. On the matter of the involvement of the people and benefiting from any agreement between the government and a company, Solomon said: “Once an agreement is prepared in this region, the residents in the community must be involved; that is a matter that is being addressed by the government.”
Left out
Describing as “commendable”, the initiative taken by Baishanlin to do some work on the Linden Kwakwani Road as recommended by the Linden Kwakwani Road Users Association, Solomon said he is grateful but concerned that without the involvement of other people who use the road, including the RDC and GGMC, that commitment will not be sustained over time.
In response to questions from RDC councillors Solomon said the region has not been invited to be part of the exercise and the important question is how does the region become involved in the process? “I’ll be quite frank. We’ve been locked out and a new group of people have taken on the initiative and are being given support, as far as we are aware, by Baishanlin to get some stuff.”
He added that much of the material that is being used on the road came from Rusal as “bauxite capping and Rusal made a report, charging the drivers $300,000 each for every load they put on the road. So … because of that lack of coordination … you have issues like this happening now.”
Councillor Gregory Parkinson suggested that the RDC strongly objects to be being omitted from the rehabilitation exercise. He said others are prompted by narrow political aspirations that is why the RDC and other stakeholders are being kept out of the collaborative exercise with Baishanlin. But the Regional Chairman cautioned that to have the road fixed is a priority and the RDC ought to be careful in its criticism of the collaborative exercise.
While Parkinson agreed with the Regional Chairman that the RDC wants the road to be in good order, he insisted that the administration must ensure that there is adherence to acceptable procedure such as an oversight body on any project for acceptable quality work to be achieved within the Region.
Agreeing with Parkin-son, Councillor Maurice Butters said: “Our engineers must know the scope; how they are going to build it; the distance; how much road they are going to build.”
