THE Ministry of Housing and Water has acknowledged the tremendous success it recorded in 2012, especially in its Housing programme, and said 2013 promises to be even more rewarding for all sections of the Guyanese society.

Housing and Water Minster, Irfaan Ali made this declaration as he sought to highlight several of the ministry’s plans for this year.
“We have several special initiatives this year such  as the partnership with professional groups where we target young doctors and lawyers, engineers, managers, and then we have the continuation of the ‘core homes’ initiative for vulnerable persons within society,” he said.
In addition to this, Minster Ali also pointed to the continuation of the Hinterland pilot programme in targeted communities and the continued expansion of the partnership with young people.
As to who will benefit in the latter category, Ali said, “This will benefit the low and middle income earners, for example those sales persons working on Regent Street, and services sector staff.”
In elaborating on the initiative that will benefit the young professionals, he noted that this will see the availability of an “entire package” to persons qualifying in this category.
“One example is on the East Bank where we have had tremendous success. As a matter of fact, demand is outstripping supply. Here we are building a 620 sq ft  home with the land for about $4.5M,” he said.
Ali also revealed that applications are being processed in real time in most of the Regions, while in several areas, like Region 6, applications going back to 2009 are being looked at; Region 5 and 2 are real time, and Region 3 is currently at 2010. However, in Region 4 where the demand is much greater, 2009 applications are being processed.
The Minister used the opportunity to encourage those persons who have applications dating back beyond 2009 to visit the Ministry.
“In 2013 we are going to continue to look at applications and we are encouraging persons who would have applied before 2009 to visit us so that we could deal with those applications early this year,” he said.