IN a bid to offer prospective home-owners a package deal of sorts, the government will be throwing water and electricity into its new housing drive.
In the circumstances, 16 new housing schemes have been earmarked to have the relevant infrastructure for water and electricity in place at the very outset, Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced just last week.

Noting that unlike under the previous administration, when houses were handed over to citizens without the requisite services, Minister Harmon told the media that this time around, things will be done a little differently.
For starters, he said, the government will be procuring conductors for the Ministry of Communities so that areas can be divided into lots.
For Lot One, for instance, Dynamic Engineering will provide the conductors at a cost of $84.5M, while the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company will provide the items for Lot Two at a cost of $87.1M.

He went on to explain that the conductors will be used to power housing schemes in six regions across the country, namely: Onderneeming, in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); Lust-en-Rust and Zeelugt in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Farm, Covent Garden, Peters Hall, Eccles Industrial Park, Perseverance, Paradise, Enmore, Barnwell, and the Diamond commercial and industrial area, all in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); Hope and Bultirock in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); Kilkoy Chesney in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); and Bartica in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

Minister Harmon recalled that under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration, several housing developments were started whereby citizens were allocated house lots. Those persons were even encouraged to build, he said, “but then, there were no lights; and no water in some cases.”
In this new dispensation, however, those services will be contracted out. “These contracts have been awarded to ensure the installation of electrical transmission and distribution networks are done to these areas,” Minister Harmon said.

THE GOOD NEWS
And the good news is, those persons who have built their homes and were unable to move in because of the unavailability of basic amenities will soon be able to do so.
In recent times, many home-owners have been heard complaining about the many shortcomings with the turn-key houses being built and offered during the PPP administration. These faults, in many cases, had to do with poor construction, poor roads, and the unavailability of such basic services as water, electricity, telephone lines, and, as of late, Internet access.

This new administration, however, has been working assiduously to remedy that situation by providing basic services when handing over homes built by the State.
The Ministry of Housing has now included new building types for citizens to include duplexes and town houses that would take up less space, and house more families with less financial impact on the State.
Intense construction is taking place in one of the newer housing schemes, the one at Perseverance on the East Bank of Demerara, where a housing exposition is scheduled to be held shortly.

Perseverance is one of the housing schemes that saw many residents being without water. It has since been upgraded, and is to become a model housing scheme from which home applicants can choose when their time comes around to receive their properties from the government.
The installation of additional electricity poles was also recently concluded, Perseverance’s Project Manager Mr Kennard Dazzle told the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday.
“All that is needed now,” he said, “is for the connection to be made to the existing network,” since transformers, power lines and other items are already in place.

Minister of Telecommunications, Ms Catherine Hughes, has also pledged to work on ensuring telephone access is among the basic services in upcoming housing developments.
She said that a Universal Service Fund has been made available in the Telecommunications Bill to help provide telecoms service in fairly new housing and remote areas, where a company might not want to venture due to poor investment returns.
Hughes said that the government wants to come up with at least some of the funds and work with private partners to ensure that every new housing scheme has Internet, telephone and other telecommunication services.