THIS week the Pepperpot Magazine visited the community of Patentia, West Bank Demerara.

Patentia is a village of vast farmlands, lush rice fields, cattle, and poultry rearing, many roadside shops, bars and regular folks who work in and out of that community. The village houses the squatting area of ‘Skull City’ and the Old Patentia Housing Scheme known as Patentia West and a larger housing scheme called ‘Area L’.

The Pepperpot Magazine was ‘out and about’ in Patentia this week and spoke to some villagers about life in the village. Regarding the administrative works within the community, Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Councillor Saheid Khan told the Pepperpot Magazine that the work of the NDC is satisfactory based on the resources at hand and over time they have had some development in the community.

Khan pointed out that the NDC has been consistent in clearing drains and canals in the community as well as taking away refuse such has grass and large debris from the parapets of residents with an NDC-controlled tractor and trailer.

He reported that household waste is removed by Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Service weekly and residents pay for that service. Khan told the Pepperpot Magazine that there is the need for a dumpsite within the village since there is none and the old airstrip area has since been identified for dumping garbage.

He added that Patentia West has 303 legal house lots but they have more houses because some people occupy the reserve- making up another 15 to 20 houses.

Khan stated that there are about five persons or more to a household, making it roughly about 523 persons in total that reside in Patentia West.

The Councillor pointed out that Area L or ‘Skull City’ was regularised some time ago and there are about 50 house lots with about 325 residents there.

He related that the villagers in ‘Skull City’ take up a large part of the only cemetery in Patentia, as such, there is a need for a new cemetery. He stated that a plot of land has been identified and plans are in-stream to relocate burials there.

Khan told the Pepperpot Magazine that the village is large in the sense that it has acres of privately-owned rice fields and farmlands and there is small scale farming in the community with mostly cash crops.

Patentia has a Masjid, a few churches and a Mandir as well as a nursery, a primary and a secondary schools within the village.

“Patentia is a peaceful place that has a quiet stillness to it; a village that has potential and a village of people, who are mostly self-employed,” he said.

Khan added that some villagers work in offices in the city, while some have their own small businesses and others are elders, who have since retired.

“This place has good infrastructure in the sense it has good bridges, roads and drainage but we have had some flooding recently due to negligence- a koker was left opened,” he said.

He reported that the old wooden main bridge to the community was replaced with a concrete one and several small bridges were also constructed linking the village to the public road and some streets were re-paved and graded.

Khan disclosed that originally the roads in the village were built in the 1960s by the Sugar Welfare Fund and have been maintained by central government to date.

He stated that it is known that Patentia is a low-lying village with one of the longest drainage canals with three kokers.

Khan stated that Patentia has become a haven for immigrants, adding that scores of Venezuelans have moved into the village and are renting houses.