The APNU+AFC administration has committed to bringing a new approach to tackling housing development. It has proposed to build communities, as against issuing house lots where persons are expected to construct their individual homes. Another aspect of issuing house lots is that there was a haphazard approach to infrastructural development. In many instances houses were built in areas without roads, including sidewalks, proper drainage, sewerage, and absent electricity and telephone services. In this physical environment though every home owner should feel the sense of satisfaction and pride in being able to own a piece of real estate, and by extension a piece of Guyana, it compromises the aesthetics and property value.

Building communities not only addresses the infrastructural deficiencies as obtained in the present house lot allocation but it brings a sense of orderliness, improve aesthetic and property value. The psychological comfort is also boosted in community environment, where one will enter a turn-key house, absent the frustration of having no utilities and proper infrastructural connectivity to gain ingress and egress to one’s home.

The present proposed community approach to housing development, should it be modelled based on past experiences, has characteristics such as community playground, business centers, health clinic, schools and proper infrastructures and basic services. Some communities across the country are Tucber and Town Council schemes in Berbice, Henrietta and Suddie Housing schemes in Essequibo, and Tucville and South Ruimveldt in Georgetown, to name a few. Where Guyana is pursuing a Green Economy there may be other characteristics.

In 2016 the Central Housing and Planning Authority has said it will expend $50B to revamp the Housing Programme. Recently Minister Valarie Patterson, who is the minister within the Ministry of Communities with responsibility for housing, announced that 60 duplexes apartment will be built in Linden. The new home owners are expected to be primarily state employees, young professionals, and middle income earners. This pilot project creates opportunities to construct communities satisfying the requirement of a green economy.

One of the deficiencies that has to be admitted within recent times in the construction of houses is that Guyanese are building these with little or no attention paid to our low-lying coastal plain which is below sea level and the tropical environment. It has become a feature to see houses built for style and not convenience. In this regard it is not unusual to see houses here more appropriate for temperate environment, like North America and Europe. Such construction places financial burden on the home owner to properly ventilate, necessitating the purchase of fans or air-condition units, which increase electricity consumption and cost.

Government may find it useful to look at constructing houses appropriate to the tropical environment and with a green economy focus factor on ventilation and energy saving. Alternative energy supply can examine solar energy, where panels are installed on the roof, giving persons the option to go fully solar or create hybrid energy (fossil and solar). Or it may be worthwhile to explore the possibility of establishing a solar grid specifically for some communities. Linden is well placed to experiment with alternative energy given its energy bill. The employment of skills to build these houses allows the government to begin the streamlining of and bringing this category of labour into the formal economy and consistent with Employment Laws. Such compliance will see obligations being honoured to National Insurance Scheme, the Guyana Revenue Authority, Occupational Safety and Health Act, and so forth.

Waste management can entail testing the viability of moving away from septic tanks to that of building sewage plants. Doing this will bring Guyana into honouring its obligation under the Cartagena Convention in liquid sewage management. The placement of new communities is likely to see some displacement of the natural landscape. When this is being done it would help to ensure efforts are undertaken to comply with sustainable management of the foliage and fauna, and even waterways where they exist.

Guyana is moving into new territory, though it is returning to the value of building communities. Where the green economy is being pursued as the developmental thrust, the possibilities are endless. The new terrain should be tackled, head on, with gusto, not only for the challenges that it will present, but the new frontiers and opportunities for growth and development.