Mahdia after the fire…
– new housing scheme to be fast-tracked
– fire victims to have first preference
FAMILIES rendered homeless by the fire at Mahdia are being adequately taken care of, Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) Chairman, Senor Bell said yesterday, and that a medium-term recovery plan includes the rebuilding of the razed business arcade along the lines of a modern upscale shopping area.
The homeless are also to be the first beneficiaries of a housing scheme project at Mahdia, long in the making, but which will now be fast-tracked, given the current circumstances, he said.
Bell confirmed that a total of 25 business places were destroyed in the fire, and 150 persons rendered homeless. Just five families, comprising 35 persons, he said, have so far appealed for relief.
He is of the opinion that the reason more persons have not asked for help is because the community in the main comprises of people with means, and as a result of this, there has been no inordinate pressure on the Region in terms of large numbers of victims requesting aid.
Those seeking help are presently being accommodated in a four-bedroom house owned by the Regional Democratic Council. They are being given three meals daily, and every effort is being made to ensure that they are comfortable, including installing additional sanitary facilities and providing them with adequate furnishing.
They will be accommodated and fed until they are able to fend for themselves, Bell said, adding: “The others have made their own arrangements, probably with the aid of families and friends, and perhaps with resort to their own resources as a means of adjusting to their changed circumstances.”
With respect to the fate of the arcade, Bell said that a medium-term plan is to rebuild it along modern lines. “Neat modern buildings, concrete, enclosed,” he said, adding: “We envisage a new shopping area comparable in quality to the City Mall in Georgetown.” He however stressed: “No housing accommodation will be permitted in such a business environment.”
On the issue of housing for the displaced, Bell said that the Regional Administration had long ago identified a spot near the Mahdia airstrip as the location for a proposed housing scheme. “This housing scheme project will now be fast-tracked, and the fire victims will be the first beneficiaries of house lots at this site.”
With speculation rife yesterday that the destruction of the business section at Mahdia may have some effects on the mining sector, one source said: “One possible consequence is that the miners who used to get goods from some of these businesses on credit prior to going into the goldfields may be unable to get that given the current situation. This could hamper production.”
He however conceded that that may be jumping the gun, as it was too early to assess the impact of the blaze on the mining sector.
Millions of dollars went up in smoke, and lives were threatened at Mahdia Thursday night when several business and dwelling houses in the vendors’ arcade there were razed to the ground by a fire of suspected electrical origin.
An eyewitness said that a plume of smoke was followed by an explosion, and the blaze quickly engulfed the several wooden buildings in the Arcade. Residents said that the blaze was virtually uncontrollable from beginning to end, there being no fire tender or easily accessible source of water for fire fighting within the community.
The firefighting capacity was limited to the use of barrels of water filled from a creek some distance away, and then loaded onto trucks and transported to the scene of the fire.
The fire, residents say, pretty much had its own way for nearly two hours before some amount of control was achieved.
Less than 24 hours after the fire, a Cabinet team, led by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds (who is performing the duties of the President) and comprising Ministers Robeson Benn, Kellawan Lall and Dr. Jennifer Westford, flew into the area to conduct a damage assessment and needs analysis to extend some form of immediate relief, and devise long-term solutions in the process of rebuilding.
Subsequent to the damage assessment, the team made a number of immediate interventions. These included emergency shelter arrangements at the community’s school dormitory, and a few urgently needed items, including drinking water, tents and cots, which were airlifted into the area from the Civil Defence Commission’s (CDC’s) warehouse.
Additionally, each family was given $10,000 by Minister Westford, in an effort to provide them with some immediate financial independence, and the Prime Minister committed $500,000 on Government’s behalf to be spent on providing immediate relief for the affected residents.
Regional Chairman Bell expressed thanks to several organizations and Government agencies which contributed very quick and effective relief to the families displaced by the fire.
He said that the Regional Administration was grateful to among other agencies the Ministries of Works and Local Government, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Youth Challenge International, UNICEF and the Guyana relief Council (GRC).
“The situation here, with respect to relief of the victims,” he said, “is well under control,” though donations of building materials would be a more pertinent form of relief as the victims strive to recover and move on with their lives.