Over 813 acres of land that once belonged to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (CH&PA) has been transported to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), a notice published in the Official Gazette states.
Housing and Water Minister, Colin Croal, at a public engagement with residents of Buxton, East Coast Demerara on Monday, said that government has been working to meet the housing needs of the country.
“We are currently finalising lands because we have to do this in conjunction with Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission as well as GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation)…We have thousands of acres of lands that will be available for future allocation on the East Coast,” he said. In his brief address he told the gathering that the CH&PA has been working to provide house lots and options to every citizen. He stated that the applications for house lots increased by approximately 13,000 as when they took office in August 2020 there were about 70,000 applications in the system. To date he said there are over 83,000 applications. Meanwhile, the June 18 notice states that lands from GuySuCo located at Meten-Meer-Zorg, Stewartville, Leonora and Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara were handed over to the CH&PA by June 15.
According to the notice, the CH&PA has acquired at Meten-Meer-Zorg 107 acres in Block ‘X1’, 57.95 acres in Block ‘X2’, 29.542 acres at Block XIX Leonora, 71.4735 acres at Block XX Stewartville, 29.542 acres at Leonora Block: XIX 35.3264 at Block XIV in Anna Catherina and 41.4504 acres in Block XX at Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara. These number 342.7423 acres of former sugar lands. In addition, the Extraordinary Gazette lands, totaling 470.86 acres, were also transported to the CH&PA paving the way for lands to be titled to individuals. These lands are situated at La Bonne Intention (LBI), Annandale, Bladen Hall, Strathspey, Vigilance East Coast Demerara and at Anna Catherina and Edinburgh, West Coast Demerara.
The Official Gazette states that at La Bonne Intention 76.05 acres located in Block XIV and 9.82 acres in Block XIV NX, 65.85 acres in Block: XXI Annandale, 84.90 acres at Block XXVI Bladen Hall, 84.90 Block XXVII Strathspey and 67.14 acres at Block XXVII, East Coast Demerara were transported to the CH&PA. These amount to 388.66 acres. Additionally the Gazetted Order also states that at Anna Catherina Block XVI 98.6100 acres and 68.4928 at Block XVII at Edinburgh West Coast Demerara, or 167.1028 acres were transported. The Housing Ministry has been engaged in a work programme to find affordable housing solutions for a number of applicants.
In 2021, Croal, in response to a letter by former Minister of Communities with responsibility for housing, Annette Ferguson, had said “The allocations which Ferguson referred to in her letter were a political gimmick in the lead up to 2020 election as these allocations were done in January and February 2020. In most of these areas, no designs nor surveys were done, they were all virgin lands for which the Ministry had no jurisdiction over”. The Ministry of Housing, he said was saddled with a number of land ownership issues since thousands of Guyanese had letters stating they have been issued lands but years had passed and they were unable to get ownership documents or even locate the lots.
In his letter of response, Croal said in the absence of an ownership document, it is almost impossible for an allottee to approach a bank for a mortgage, and this is one of the two factors that resulted in low occupancy in these schemes which Ferguson boasted about developing. All of these schemes he noted, lacked the basic infrastructure; in fact they were all large open lands with heavy vegetation and were being developed under the Ministry’s 2021 budget and work programme.
