Dear Editor,
I am a resident who has been living in Bartica for over 25 years. There was a recent disaster in the town with a high wind coupled with lightning, thunder and the heaviest rainfall in over 25 years. I have photographs of the damage I suffered during this heavy rainfall that caused many homes in Bartica to have water averaging about three feet in their homes, as a consequence of which furniture and other household items were destroyed.
We, the residents of West Indian Housing Scheme are not engineers, technocrats or persons with the ability to manage major construction, but from our own common sense we could observe that the undertaking of the municipality to start the preparation of a playfield would be disastrous. They did this without any proper consultation with persons who had engineering skills or those in government with expertise.
As a matter of fact, we thought that a proper survey would have been conducted by both the regional personnel and members of local government, and coming out of the discussion a meeting would have been held with the residents to indicate to us the development plan which was intended. However, neither the Mayor nor the councils made a visit to our area to inform us of this playfield in progress, a playfield which would destroy our household articles. The Mayor’s arrogance on the telephone only reflected his unprofessionalism.
The Regional Chairman did visit me and said that he could only sympathize; in addition, two councillors came and took videos of what had transpired with my property. It seems that I could not turn to any government official within Bartica for any help, as it appears that these persons are on a different wave band.
I am kindly soliciting through your office that a team of professionals visit Bartica to conduct a thorough survey to see if there is any justification for the decision made by the Mayor to lay out expenditure for a playfield that is not warranted but instead poses a threat to the livelihoods of the residents of West Indian Housing Scheme.
From the evaluation conducted it was estimated that the estimated engineering cost was $30,000,000. This in itself needs an investigation, apart from the fact that it would affect residents with properties valued at hundreds of millions.
Yours faithfully,
Karen Bishop
