Minister of State, Joseph Harmon yesterday met with representatives from several ministries and government agencies to broach a multi-stakeholder approach towards a developmental plan for the Mocha Arcadia Com-munity on the East Bank of Demerara.
Dr. Richard Van West-Charles, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Water Incorporat-ed (GWI), Frederick Flatts, CEO of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) – Ministry of Agriculture, Leon Castello, Personal Assistant to Minister within the ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson and Victor Wilson, Mocha resident and Adviser to the community, attended the meeting at the Ministry of the Presidency.
A release yesterday from the Ministry of the Presidency said that the meeting is a follow-up on issues presented to the Minister earlier this month, when he met with some Mocha residents, including the Chairman of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council there.
The release said that Harmon specifically asked the meeting to identify projects that can be derived from plans that have already been catered for in their budget to draft a community development plan for Mocha. The Minister said that the community was challenged by land distribution and land use issues, electricity and water woes and dilapidated roads.
Van West-Charles said a group from Barnwell, Mocha Arcadia had approached the utility a few months ago about access to potable water and the company is in the process of installing some pipelines.
Castello also noted that the Public Infrastructure Ministry recently installed 52 streetlights, which will be activated next week. Wilson, who said that he moved into Mocha in 1994, remarked that communities north of Barnwell North and at Prosperity have no electricity and that “the kind of farming that the people have been advised to do there; they will need power… power for water, animals, for their children”.
Flatts said the Agriculture Ministry has embarked on a comprehensive drainage and irrigation plan in Mocha since July 2015. A bulldozer truck and long-boom excavator have been stationed there and, to date, have bulldozed 18 miles of dam and cleared 20 miles of drainage channels.
Jeremy Douglas, Engineer at the NDIA and Renford Homer, Deputy CEO of the Guyana Power and Light also attended the meeting.
