Residents of Salem, Parika, East Bank Essequibo are pleased that a branch of the National Library was established in the village two years ago but lamented that the building still lacks basic amenities.
The library which is opened on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 2:30 to 5 pm and is operated by three staff members, serves about 50 persons in the community including adults and children.
They do not have access to electricity, water or a washroom at the facility and would have to go to the homes of “neighbours.”
Stabroek News learnt that the staff and users are not just being inconvenienced
but they feel guilty to be imposing on their neighbours.
A nearby resident said though, “If anybody comes to the library and need anything we have to assist. We are not running from assisting because it is our civic duties as neighbours around but at least we want the library to get what it deserves.”
Residents said too that the facility “is without any overhead tank,” stressing that “something is wrong there regarding the construction.”
They said that upon their insistence that at least a toilet should be at the library, a pit latrine, that has been unused, was built at the back.
This newspaper ob-served that the pit latrine has been taken over by vines and was infested with wood ants.
There was also a ‘’cut drum’ that collects water whenever it rains, from a fine PVC pipe attached to the guttering.
Apart from that, the facility which was built on a narrow plot of land that extends to the back, has not been fenced.
Residents raised the concerns at a meeting when a government minister visited the Parika School last April.
At that meeting, a regional official promised to look into it but “everything left just like that.”
“The question is,” a resident queried: “How would a contract be awarded with washroom, water and no connection whatsoever from GPL up to now?”
They also lamented that “the NDC does not maintain the compound; they don’t clean the drains and cut the grass. We would spray the grass and help to weed it and help to clean the parapet and the trenches.”
According to them, “The NDC has made a statutory obligation of contributing a sum every month towards the upkeep of the library. But since the IMC [Interim Management Committee] was formed around 2007, everything was just dismantled.”
The residents told this newspaper too that the, “IMC doing whatever they think is right. That is what is encouraging people not to pay taxes although it is their duty. But they don’t want their hard-earned cash to be misspent.”
They are pleading with those in authority to address the concerns urgently so persons can benefit fully from the library.
