Dear Editor,
I was very elated when I read a letter captioned ‘Customers are required to pay a “capital contribution” in areas where there is no GPL network’ written by Desilon Daniels, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
There exists an area located about one mile south of the Linden-Soesdyke Highway junction on the East Bank highway. This area is known as Kallicharran Sand Road and is located on the eastern side of the highway, stretching about one mile in with buildings on both sides. The area is heavily populated and one of the buildings houses a church.
Even though this area is so populated it has no electricity or potable water. The residents depend on rainwater for drinking, cooking, washing, etc. Now that the country is facing a dry spell, residents have to pay as much as $4,000.00 for a 450 gal black tank of water which is supplied by canter trucks. Several years ago GWI carried out a survey and promised to make the service available, but nothing has done thus far.
There is another sand road known as Grant Sand Road which is located about 100 rods north of Kallicharran Sand Road. This sand road also has houses on both sides, and stretches about the same distance going east; it is also well populated. However, Grant Sand Road has GPL and GWI networks so the residents have access to water and electricity.
Since the days of GEC the residents made representations to management to have the network installed at Kallicharran Sand Road. They even offered their labour to assist with the planting of the poles and also agreed to make financial contributions. Such commitments still stand. The long and short of it is that the residents prefer to have the services legally and pay for such services than have them any other way.
By way of this letter I am therefore asking that this area be assessed, an estimate done and the residents informed as to how much it would cost to have the network installed.
Yours faithfully,
Colin Gill
