President Irfaan Ali on Sunday morning visited the community of Agricola and heard complaints of contaminated water flowing through pipelines, clogged drains and canals, deplorable roads and not enough streetlights.
Residents also complained about the absence of vocational training for youth in the community.
In response, the Head of State extended an invitation to young people who are interested in the construction sector to make themselves available for skills training which is to be introduced shortly.
Ali told the residents: “So, there are a few things that we will be doing. One, based on what I have heard, the drainage is the number one priority. Alright we going to start before the end of next week to get a group together from this community itself that we going to engage and hire to clean the internal drainage to look at all the culverts and so on.”
He added that with oversight by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), the two drainage canals would be excavated. In addition, the Agricola sluice will be inspected and rehabilitated.
Personnel from the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) were engaged as regards the quality of water flowing through the pipes and they explained that the well at Agricola is very old, hence the reason for the high iron content in the water. President Ali promised that the system will be flushed in an attempt to resolve the issue.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jnr, who accompanied the president on the visit, is expected to work along with the community as it relates to the recreational facilities.
With regard to roads, Ali said, “We will start by doing a few of the streets by this year; as far as possible, the small streets. We are now moving to more concrete streets… so that we can give small contracts to members of the community to do concrete streets.”
Ali was also accompanied by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall, Acting Com-missioner of Police Clifton Hicken, a team from Men on Mission and other government officials.
