A government team on Saturday visited Mahdia for talks on transforming the mining community into a town.
A release yesterday from the Ministry of Communi-ties said that a team comprising the Ministers of Communities and Public Infrastructure, Ronald Bulkan and David Patterson respectively, APNU+AFC Parliament-arian Gloria Bancroft and engineers from the two Ministries toured the community.
During a meeting with residents and regional officials including Regional Chairman Bonaventure Fredericks at the Mahdia Community Centre, the release said that the Ministers assured that all developmental works that would be executed in the community would be done in consultation with the Regional Democratic Council (RDC).
Mahdia is the centre of Region Eight (Potaro/ Siparuni) and produced interesting results following the May general and regional elections where APNU+AFC won control of central government. Whereas an Alliance For Change (AFC) candidate held the post of Chairman of Region Eight following the 2011 election, when it combined with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to defeat the PPP/C, the PPP/C recaptured the chairmanship of the region this year by more than doubling the votes it got in 2011. Fredericks is a candidate of the PPP/C.
Yesterday’s release said that Bulkan was firm that the Regional Executive Officer (REO) is not the head of the Region but a public servant, who is there to serve the RDC. While in opposition, APNU and the AFC had complained how the previous REO, Ronald Harsawack had defied the AFC-led RDC.
The release said that Bulkan stated that Guya-na’s Constitution provides for 81 Local Governments but this had been breached for many years.
The Minister said that this fresh approach is a fulfilment of one of Govern-ment’s many promises of transforming Guyana when it was in the Opposition benches in the Tenth Parliament.
The release reported Fredericks as saying that the walk to developing Mahdia and the entire Region would not be an easy task unless everyone works together. He said that the REO has been co-operative.
The release reported residents as saying that they are dissatisfied that many seemingly corrupt officers are still working in the Region.
The vocal residents identified several persons who they believe are corrupt and should be fired.
The release said that Patterson is of the view that those public officers who serve in a district for a number of years should be rotated.
To transform Mahdia into a town would require significant infrastructure development, the residents heard. The release said that Patterson announced that Government will be paving all internal roads in Mahdia and the road leading from the airstrip to the community. Consideration is also being given to paving the airstrip.
“This revelation was greeted with loud applause from the residents, who complained about the deplorable roads for a number of years. However, a resident pointed out that Government needs to fix the water network before it could pave the roads”, the release said.
Prior to attending the meeting, the release said that the Ministers, engineers, Fredericks and the REO visited the Salbora Creek, which is the main source of water supply in the area. The team also viewed the distribution pipelines leading from the creek to Mahdia to assess why the community is constantly faced with low water pressure. It was observed that there are several leakages, illegal connections and silt in the pipelines.
To ensure that quality upgrading works are done, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will be stationing two of its engineers in the Region, the release said.
Mining is the major economic activity in Mahdia but the release said that miners are faced with many challenges and are asking for Government’s swift intervention. The release said that residents contended that the former administration had left a gap in the mining sector for corruption to fester.
The release said that residents have not taken lightly the fact that they are paying the highest per kilowatt rate in the country. Patterson said that the Government will be working with the power company to determine how residents could get a better supply of electricity at a lower cost.
Bulkan noted that the Tumatumari hydro power plant is being rehabilitated by a private company and when completed residents would be able to access electricity for half the current price being paid.
The release said that residents are calling for the equitable distribution of resources in the education system in Region Eight. They were disheartened that the Mahdia Primary School was unable to produce students with high scores in the National Grade Six Assessment.
Bulkan informed residents that efforts will be made to complete infrastructure development of the housing scheme. A resident contended that Mahdia needs to move away from leasing lands to land ownership.
