RESIDENTS of Ituni, Region 10, are of the opinion that the lack of telephone service and Internet connection, coupled with bad roads and other developmental issues are keeping their community behind and making them feel forgotten.
According to the residents, they have raised these matters with the authorities and their complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

They told the Guyana Chronicle that the major issue of disconnection lies with the unavailability of Wi-Fi or 4G Internet service in the community.
Most of the residents are also without land line phones, though applications for same were made to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) over 10 years ago.
As a result of this, the close to 1000 residents are forced to spend an unreasonable sum of money on credit and data services, which they deem as very poor.

Concerned and frustrated resident Keisha Griffith told this publication that in addition to being disconnected, the main victims of the situation are the school- children who cannot effectively get their school assignments and research done. “We have been using both GTT and Digicel services for over 10 years now and it seems as if everyone else around us are being given the opportunity to enjoy wifi services and we can’t. All we get in this area is edge on our phones and we have school-aged children who need to do assignments and we can’t help them,” the resident bemoaned.

Griffith, along with other residents recently did a research on the credit revenue in the community and concluded that vendors are making approximately $350, 000 per week on the commodity.

The cost of credit, she said, is a financial burden on residents given the stagnant economic situation in Ituni and lack of job opportunities.
“We are not up to date with technology, with current affairs, we are really suffering here,” Griffith said.
The deplorable roads linking the community to Linden and Kwakwani are another major concern for the residents. A few weeks ago, a mother delivered her baby on the Ituni trail and while the ambulance tried to transport the team to the Linden Hospital Complex, it broke down twice since it could not keep up with the road.
It was revealed that after that incident which was reported in this newspaper, another mother has since delivered on the trail.

Residents are calling on the relevant authority to purchase a heavy-duty vehicle to serve as the ambulance, since the regular automobiles cannot withstand the road and is resulting in danger to both life and limb.