Vice-Chairman reports…
VICE-CHAIRMAN of Region One (Barima/Waini), Mr. Paul Pierre said, Saturday, that, over the past four years, there has been tremendous development across all the sub-regions. He was speaking during a visit to Mabaruma, North West District, by Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Mr. Manniram Prashad.
“The Region has witnessed quite a lot of development and Mabaruma is only one of the  three sub-regions. In all three, we have seen significant developments taking place, such as new roads being built, health centres constructed and schools improved,” Pierre attested.
He said that, through the Secure Livelihood Programme, which is a joint Government of Guyana and European Union (GoG/EU) project, the lives of many people in the communities have also improved.
“This programme started in 2010 and 12 communities in the Mabaruma Sub-Region have benefited from it, involving agriculture, aquaculture, apiculture and crab culture, which, I think, is a relatively new thing in the country,” Pierre
Stated.
He said many community residents have admitted that their lives have improved because of their involvement in the activities of the programme.
“They are saying that they have learnt a lot from these experiences and, even now, as the volunteers who are the specialists in these areas are leaving, locally based volunteers are taking over,” Pierre said.
In the area of agriculture, he said, in the last two years, the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) nursery,  located in Mabaruma, has progressed and there are plans to install a processing plant at Kumaka.
He continued:“Presently, we have the spice project, which is being run by NAREI and includes the growing of tumeric, nutmeg, blackpepper and ginger and there are plans for a processing plant for drying turmeric.”
Pierre said that would be the second such factory in the Region, where one  already exists and dries ginger, also a part of the secure livelihood programme.

Demonstration farmers
He announced, too, that there are demonstration farms in some of the communities, which are also doing very well.
Alluding to the other areas where progress has been made, Pierre said the Region has also moved ahead with health care facilities, including the establishment of the state-of-the-art Mabaruma Hospital.
“We now have a functioning x-ray machine and, last year, more than 100 surgeries were performed at the hospital, by roving medical teams who visit on a monthly basis,” he revealed.
Pierre acknowledged that the health sector in Region One has greatly improved and the residents are very pleased with the adequate supply of medication available.
He said, in the field of education, most communities now have functioning schools, well equipped and fully staffed.
But one of the areas of concern, Pierre lamented, is the untimely supply of books to some schools, a problem which can be  attributed to the terrain in some places, that makes it difficult to access the intended beneficiary institutions.
Despite this setback, however, he maintained that education is on the move in the Region.
Responding to complaints about the lack of reliable electricity supply in Mabaruma, Pierre explained that, for the longest while, the Region has been forced to ration electric current.
“We are subsidised by the Government and one of the factors that contributes to this is that there is no system in place to make consumers pay for the service. So, if we are not getting enough money to expand the network, then we cannot expect things to be any different,” he said.
Pierre agreed it is a major contributory factor and something that needs to be addressed.