The threatened flooding of Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) lands at Success, East Coast Demerara to force the removal of dozens of squatters began yesterday but those occupying the area have vowed to stay put.
When Stabroek News visited Success yesterday morning, GuySuCo employees could be seen using trucks to take the machinery onto the dam. Along with the trucks carrying the pump and pipes were two excavators which were used to dig drains along the dam which would ensure that the water would flow deep into the land and cause flooding. They were accompanied by the police who confirmed that the operation was being carried out by GuySuCo.
Those persons who attempted to prevent the excavators from passing through were arrested. During the morning hours the trench was showing signs of water rising. In the afternoon however, the pump was set up and the flooding operation began.
Squatters in the area said that the company started flooding the area with no remorse for the young children and sick persons living there. They complained that their voices aren’t being heard and people aren’t seeing the punishment they are going through, living in the area as GuySuCo tries to force them off the land, but they will not budge because they have no other options.
“Is this the better life for all Guyanese? I am a Guyanese and I wanted a house lot and I have to get a house lot in Guyana. I apply since 2004 and they keep pushing me round about,” were the words of Larry, a squatter in the Success dam area. Since last week some parts of the deeper fields started to come under water and many persons had to move to the outer lands. Larry, like many others, said they will continue to live there even if their homes are flooded.
“We gon’ got to sleep right here on this land. This is where we sleeping cause me ain’t giving up. If they want to take me off it let them give me somewhere to go. We gon’ swim in it. We gon’ make floating house all, cause this is not right. I want to know how these people could sleep at night when they do this,” were the words of Jacinta, who expressed her frustration after her house was flooded by the water. The woman who had her youngest child with her when Stabroek News visited said that she had to beg a neighbour whose home was not flooded to keep her children while she stood helplessly watching her home get flooded. Jacinta said that poor people such as herself have relied heavily on the promises of officials while they sell lands to the wealthy.
“When they done with we, we ain’t good no more. Poor people like me ain’t good no more,” she bemoaned. “They selling the land to the rich and the poor people got to suffer. Rich man won’t come out their bed 5 or 6 o’ clock in the morning to go polling station for them; if it wasn’t for the poor people who go and vote for them they wouldn’t have been in there and this is how they treating people? They can’t give people piece of land? They selling land. One time you hearing GuySuCo own it, one time you hearing NICIL. Who really own this land?” Jacinta questioned as she and a group of other squatters watched the water continue to rise and flow into her dwelling.
Other persons nearby agreed and said that as Jacinta mentioned, they got up and voted for the government and now they are being put out of land which they claim was promised to them. With this in mind, they collectively stated that people should stop voting if this is the treatment they would receive especially after the empty promises. They also complained that persons are applying for land but years are going by with no word about land allocation or even a call back.
After being told they had up to last Monday to vacate the land they have been occupying for some time, GuySuCo is continuing in its attempt to get the squatters to leave by flooding the land. Over the course of two weeks, GuySuCo has attempted reclamation; first by informing the squatters that they needed to vacate the deep fields and by use of force provided by the Guyana Police Force. How-ever, the squatters maintained that they want the promises made to them by government officials to be fulfilled.
The squatters have alleged that they were promised that land would be allocated to them if the current government won the 2020 election, but since the administration has assumed office, they are yet to receive any land and instead are being told that they have to remove from the property. As the frustration of seeing their homes being flooded continued, a woman living on the land blocked media operatives from leaving through the Success entrance. She stood by the bridge which leads from the dam and angrily charged that people were not trying to help their situation.
Encouraged
Previously many squatters have said that they moved to the area because the land was vacant and unforeseen circumstances have led them to start their life there. They have also said that they were further encouraged to remain and build after Government officials told them that they would receive help if they live on the land and try to develop themselves. For this reason many persons who settled in the area have asserted that they will refuse to leave because they have nowhere else to go and have invested too much into their homes. The only way they say they are prepared to leave is if they are offered house lots.
One of those persons is Jagnarine who has built his wooden one-story house which sits comfortably on a plot of land. He said that he and his family of four started squatting in March and were able to build the little home after borrowing money. The house was completed since May and he showed this newspaper the cement and steel which he purchased to continue expanding in an effort to make a comfortable home for his family. Jagnarine said he used to be a taxi driver but became jobless amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus and could no longer afford to pay rent. He said that like many, he went to occupy land there because he had no other option, but he did not expect that such an unfortunate event would take place when he moved in. He said that his next move is still unclear but for now he has no intention of moving because he has already started investing. Additionally, he said that he had applied for land since 2003 and in 2020 he is still without any. “I never see a government fight to cultivate cane like how they fighting to cultivate cane right now. I never know cane so important to fight down the people so hard to cultivate cane. And we all will live and see that when they get we out of here… no cane,” was his final comment on the situation.
While for some, the move there was prompted by inability to pay rent, single mother, Dalian, shared that before she started squatting in the area she was using her children’s child support money to pay her rent. She said that that money was intended to feed her children but because of unstable employment and her very small income she could not afford her rent so she used the money her children’s father would pay as child support to ensure they had a roof over their head. She said that she is fighting not for the land but for an allocation of land. “I’m not fighting for this land but I’m fighting for a home for myself and my children, if they could give me a land right now I have money that I could put half even self. I’m saving because I want a place of my own. I’m not fighting for this land because I want the people land. I want a place to call my home so if they could give me a land, I would not mind moving and giving them the land. I would gladly do that. I don’t want to fight the government,” she declared. Dalian also opined that flooding the land will only result in squatters fighting back. “Flooding won’t make the situation better, the people have already said they staying and they ain’t moving. Why I think they flood the land? They want the people to retaliate so that they can take action and say, well okay they retaliated. I just believe they do this to get a reaction out of the people. They do it to get their land but they want a reaction but we are not going to give them what they want,” she said.
Abigail Baker, on the other hand, accused GuySuCo of neither properly approaching the squatters nor giving them notice with enough time or a solution to the land dilemma. “I don’t mind giving up the land but where we gonna sleep tonight? This is not no discretion, you wanna do things you do it better. You really want to do something, you give people notice. We doing X, Y, Z, we giving you up to so much of time to disembark or if you have structures we gon help ya’ll build. You can’t flood out people now. Where people sleeping tonight? Where am I sleeping? I understand you want it but you can do it in a better way. People money involved,” the woman told this newspaper.
However, not everyone in area has decided to remain. Roslyn Beresford, who had previously indicated that she was selected to be chairperson in the squatting area, told this newspaper that she left after her home was flooded.
