Contending that they have no alternative, squatters at Success, East Coast Demerara yesterday said that they are prepared to stand their ground instead of giving up lands that are owned by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
The squatters have been given up to today to vacate the lands which they have occupied within the past year. As of yesterday many of the squatters relocated their structures from deep in the fields to the front section of the farmlands.
Signs of GuySuCo preparing to flood lands occupied by the squatters were visible yesterday, with high levels of water in the trenches, blocked drains and low-lying sections of the lands taking in water since Saturday. This threat has not dissuaded the squatters as many announced “we have nowhere else to go.”
The squatters have occupied lands in an area that stretches from Success to Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara.
Many of the squatters said that they are unsure of what will be their fate today and emphasized that they are not prepared to give up the lands.
It is likely that officials from GuySuCo and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) will return to the area to determine if any progress has been made with the relocation.
Last Wednesday, the police fired pellets and teargas at the squatters whom they claimed were hostile to NICIL/GuySuCo officials who had visited the area to meet with them.
For many of the squatters, high rent demands and unstable employment opportunities due to COVID-19 have resulted in them taking up lands in the sugarcane fields.
Krishan Bridgemohan, a minibus conductor and a father of two toddlers yesterday explained that he only decided to move into the area after he was unable to pay his rent.
Cold mud floor
“We cannot afford to pay the rent so we moved here like 7 months ago. I tried applying for lands but because I have no proof of income they rejected my application. We don’t want to be in this situation… You think it is easy to sleep on cold mud floor but because I have nowhere else to go, we are here,” he explained when asked if he had made any alternative arrangements to relocate his family.
The father of two is one of the many squatters who would have moved to the front of the fields with their families after recognising that water has started to invade the low-lying lands at the back.
Among the squatters are several single-mother-led families. While they share similar stories as to why they have been squatting, they noted that they have made numerous attempts to secure a piece of land via the Central Housing and Planning Authority but in many instances the price for the land did not fit their budget.
“It is 17 years now I have been trying to get a piece of land but it never happened. I went in like they tell me too but it is always a push around. Since when PPP was in government I have been fighting to get a piece of land they come back in power and I still fighting for a piece of land,” one mother of four said.
Another related that the pricing of the land offered to her was always above her budget and as a result she was never able to purchase any of the lands.
“I apply for a low income house lot that was between $58,000 and $90,000 but when I go in they giving me land for $2M and $3M. What I gone do with that? I barely getting money to live on,” the mother lamented.
The squatters argued further that they will only consider relocating if suitable and viable housing options are presented to them by the CH&PA.
Show us
“They have to take us and show us where they have the lands available for us. They cannot come and tell us they have lands and expect us to buy that. We will not accept that. We don’t have nowhere else to go and they need to understand that. We don’t want to be squatting but …we don’t have anywhere else to live,” Bridgemohan lamented.
Ziggy Daphness on Wednesday last shared with this newspaper that he moved with his parents and sister to live in the area a month ago. According to the man, approximately two thousand persons have settled in the squatting area which begins at Success and runs as far back as Vryheid’s Lust. The man said that he had submitted an application for land since the year 2015 and though he was promised that he would be called by the previous Minister of Housing, Valerie Patterson-Yearwood, he never received feedback.
He explained that during a visit by the minister to ‘A’ Field Sophia, he had related his interest in having ownership of “the bushiest piece of land” to which the Minister replied by informing him that they were house lots available in Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, while taking his interview paper and promising to call him.
She never did, he said.
Daphness explained that an excavator was brought in by NICIL which broke the access bridge leading into the community. A number of vehicles could be seen lining both sides of the canal. The destruction of the bridge which was said to have been built by the squatters themselves prevented drivers from getting in or out of the village.
And according to the man, he believes that more than ten persons were taken to the hospital as a result of the police shooting.
“Them police didn’t come and tell anybody to get out. Just the head of NICIL come and made a notice today. The police them come and didn’t even identify themselves. They just come, move the bridge and then start to shoot up people and use tear gas. Ms. Rosalind [a nearby resident], they got she in BV lockdown. All she do was take out she phone and start videoing and they grab she. They lock up a rasta man too. He ain’t even own a land in here. He does just come through selling he water and he juice and they [police] hold on on the man and shie he in the van,” recounted the man.
On Friday the Chairman of the Region Four Council, Daniel Seeram met with government officials and he later indicated to this newspaper that the authorities are maintaining that the land belongs to the government holding company, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and that the government’s position remains that the settlers need to vacate. He had also said that the government promised to provide two trucks from Saturday to help the settlers to remove from the area. However, when this newspaper visited the area on Saturday and yesterday, there were no trucks there but police were present.
Hundreds of persons who have been squatting at Success, Vryheid’s Lust and Chateau Margot, on the East Coast of Demerara, met with officials from the Central Housing and Planning Authority last Thursday in order to legally access house lots. Seeram said on Friday that he was told by government officials that of some 700 persons who turned up, it was discovered that almost 350 of them had standings applications for house lots and as a result they would be given some priority.
