RESIDENTS of the Barima-Waini region can rest assured that improvement in public infrastructure, facilities and social services will become a reality in the remainder of 2017 and in 2018.

That is the word from the district’s Regional Executive Officer Leslie Wilburg, who revealed to this publication the various infrastructural works being carried out, and those that will soon commence, thanks to a healthy $2.6B allocation to the region under the 2017 Budget, along with additional assistance from central Government.
Those areas expected to be addressed are road construction, the provision of electricity and water, and improvement in both the education and health sector within the region.
“We have just completed half-a-mile of bituminous road, and then we are completing the X-ray Department here in the Kumaka District Hospital,” Wilburg said, adding:
“We have just refurbished the transmission lines so that they can have electricity service there; and we are building a secondary school in Waramuri, which we hope to complete by the end of this month. We are also repairing the teachers’ quarters over at Huradia, and we’re fixing the doctors’ quarters, which is at Kwebanna and the teachers’ quarters also.”

ISSUE WITH ROADS
Wilburg however lamented the fact that the region continues to face the challenge of deplorable roads, but said that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has given its word that it will be addressing the issue.
“They are going to do the roads from Port Kaituma to Matthew’s Ridge, then to Baramita and in the town of Mabaruma itself,” he said. “And in 2018, we are making sure we have a programme that will address roads in Moruca.”
The Ministry of Infrastructure, he said, has already begun an electrification project, which will be expanded to communities such as Acquero.
And he is absolutely positive that Region One residents can look forward to an improvement in their general living conditions in the days ahead.
“They can look forward to improved facilities,” the REO said enthusiastically. “The water system has been upgraded; electricity will be handled. We are having a programme that cleans the river regularly; we are trying to improve the education facilities. Same thing with health.”
As it relates to the agriculture sector, he was the first to admit that much more needs to be done, especially in the area of agro- processing, but, he said that there is yet hope, as plans are in train to begin processing ginger, turmeric and black pepper in pilot areas identified in Mabaruma.
He said that as soon as the programme is up and running, the processing plants will be expanded to other sub-regions such as Moruca.
Of the $2.6B allocated to the region, $210.6M will go to regional administration; another $1.29B to regional education; $341.8M to public works; and $768.6M to regional health services.
Other projects that are expected to be completed during this period are construction of the Kumaka and Mabaruma wharves; construction of schools at Waramuri, Baramita, and Matthews Ridge; the extension of teachers’ quarters at Wauna, Moruca and Kwebanna; and the construction of a building to house the Regional Democratic Council’s Administration at Mabaruma.