– Minister Ali aims to distribute some 1,000 house lots in the Amelia’s Ward, Wisroc areas
THE Ministry of Housing and Water will be taking its ‘One Stop Shop’ countrywide programme today to the mining town of Linden, Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Berbice).

The two-day outreach programme will take place at the LINMINE Constabulary Hall from 09:00h to 17:00h today, and the following day from 08:30h to 17:00h.

The recently introduced ‘One Stop Shop’ outreach programme aims at decentralising the services of the Ministry of Housing and Water across the country’s ten administrative regions.

This initiative involves setting up a replica of the ministry in each region to deal with relevant issues surrounding the ministry.

These include processing agreements of sale, processing and distribution of titles and transport, allocation of house lots, as well as general issues surrounding housing and water such as squatting and other complaints.

Also there to render their service will be the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) to attend to customers complaints, bill queries, and leak reports.

The programme kicked off in Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands), followed by Regions Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) and Four (Demerara/Mahaica).

In an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Minister with the portfolio, Mr. Irfaan Ali, said 3,164 house lots were allocated in Wisroc and Amelia’s Ward between 1995 and 2000.

He said in 2009 and during the ‘One Stop Shop’ programme, the ministry aims to give out a further 1,000 house lots in Amelia’s Ward Phase II and Wisroc Phase I (B).

“In addition, we are presently examining the feasibility in the development of a further 1100 house lots in Wisroc Phase III,” he also said.

The minister said during the period 2006 to 2008, more than $410M in infrastructure works such as roads, curbs, drains and erosion control structures have been completed in several areas, including Block 22 Wisroc, West Watooka, South Amelia’s Ward, Green Valley and Amelia’s Ward Phase II (A) and Phase III (A).

Minister Ali disclosed that approximately 13,500 persons would have benefitted from these developments.

“In 2009, we would be spending approximately $331M that would benefit a further 12,000 persons, and this work would include a pure water distribution network, roads, drains and electricity,” he said.

Turning to the water sector, he added, “In keeping with GWI’s overall objective of achieving minimum service pressure of five meters, of reduction in non-revenue water to 25 per cent, to increase level of service and treated water coverage – we would be upgrading the water network system at Wismar, West Watooka, Amelia’s Ward, Wisroc and McKenzie plant.”

“The aim is to reduce distribution losses and to bring a better quality and level of service to approximately 29,000 customers,” Minister Ali emphasised.

He said a further $160M will be spent in the Wismar Housing Scheme, Amelia’s Ward, Blue Berry Hill, Kara Kara, Surapana and Silvertown on the improvement of the distribution system bringing relief to a further 19,500 residents.

“The Linden Transmission inter-linkage of the two production stations, Amelia’s Ward to McKenzie, and McKenzie to Surapana, is expected to be completed by June 30, 2009 and this would benefit about 8,000 persons,” he announced.

Additionally, the minister said that $50M is to be spent on distribution rehabilitation and metering in Region Ten.

“However, not withstanding all these investments, we are still not satisfied with the level of service and on the other hand with the level of revenue collections in Region Ten,” he pointed out.

“In the medium term, we estimate that a further $1.5B would be needed to achieve the target set in the turn-around plan and a strategic plan for Linden,” Minister Ali stated.

He revealed that so far, over 3000 transactions have been processed during the ‘One Stop Shop’ programme in the three regions.

“What we have seen also is a higher level of occupancy rate and more persons approaching the lending institutions for loans,” he observed.

The outreach programme is expected to be taken next to Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) before targeting the hinterland regions.