MR. Renis Morian, Chairman of Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice), has outlined to this publication an agenda to push farming and agriculture in the Region. He also disclosed that there is no immediate threat of flooding in the Region, as he has personally visited some treacherous ‘dyke’ areas in Linden which reportedly become vulnerable to flooding when it rains heavily and consistently.However, he has observed in that visit that, despite the persistent rainfall of recent, the main outlet was not flowing in gushing terms; hence he has concluded that there is no immediate threat of flooding in central Mackenzie.

The Regional Chairman said he then visited Bamia on the Linden Highway and observed no sign of flooding in the area, but there was evidence of erosion at the Bamia Bridge.

Morian said: “Internally, I will have a ‘think-tank’ with a group of professionals (and) technocrats to get things done, and I will approach the Ministry of Agriculture. I don’t want to have agriculture people just at the office. I want to see a programme with inputs from the RDC, measurable hours that we could say, well yes, we are making strides. In addition to that you have to talk to the farmers, as they have their own cry and needs.

“From now to December, there is a lot of groundwork that has to be done. We will actually be setting the stage for launch. Some things have to happen,” he affirmed.

He related: “I am not privy to the work of the last council, but I can tell you there are issues that went before the last council. Region Ten is yet to see a river ambulance (although) we talked about it for years. There are some persons living along the river, and in an emergency and with the advent of the cellphone, they could get to the hospital; but how they are to get there, we haven’t seen. We wanted to have a disaster preparedness programme for Region Ten that never happened. We want to see, for land selection, people in Linden play a more important role in terms of having a say for people.

“Why (must) somebody in Georgetown decide who gets land in Region Ten? Why people like GGMC and all the likes? And this was since in the time of former Chairman Mortimer Mingo, when persons took laterite out of this community.”

Morian pointed out: “This is not just this past three years, during Sharma Solomon’s tenure, but it is over the past two decades that Region Ten was neglected a whole lot. Some of these things I did not invent them. These things were in the pipeline long ago.”

He recalled: “If you look at Mr. Mingo’s initial development programmme for the Region, we had talked about it at the RDC level. Our five-year development programme did go to the then Government. They did look at it and said it is good, full stop. It ended right there.”
According to this new Regional Chairman: “This time around, the approach is different. In an integrated approach, it is not one project document or one five-year plan, one document to cover all the issues. Because, as I said to you, each Ministry of Health will have their part, Ministry of Agriculture their part, while the President will have a copy of all of the proposals, and each component will go to the prescribed area to respond.”

Looking at the infrastructure relating to agriculture, Morian said: “First of all, the building at Christianburg got to have furnishings. In times past, when we had that office, seeds used to be sold there. It must be furnished, and we have to see the office staff, and they need to get vehicles to go where they have to do their work.”

He continued: “Then I will be visiting the Minister of Agriculture. The project documents I have, I will not be sending them; I will be taking them to Minister by Minister. I will ask the Administration to set up the appointments, and I will be taking it and making it known to the press what I am doing, so it is no secret order, as taking a project document that is supported by the RDC and the residents…. And it will be from farm to market.”

By Joe Chapman