Dear Editor,
I note that 8,000 residents from Region 1 (Barima-Waini) benefitted from the $25,000 per household COVID-19 cash relief (“Eight thousand Region One households benefit from $25,000 grant,” SN, 30 September 2020).
I assume from the article that there are 8,000 households in Region 1, since the cash relief is given to households and not to individuals. According to the 2012 national population census, there were only 4,924 households in Region 1. Are we to assume that the number of households increased by 3,076 from 2012 to 2020 – that is, by 62.5 percent?
For comparison, the number of households in Region 1 increased from 3,082 in 1980 to 3,271 in 1991, to 4,166 in 2002, and to 4,924 in 2012. I find a 62.5 percent rise in the number of households in Region 1 from 2012 to 2020 simply incredible.
Yours faithfully,
Ramesh Gampat
