RESIDENTS of Andy Ville on the Wismar shore of Linden are of the opinion that only President David Granger can bring an end to their plight of living without water and electricity. The residents believe that they have exhausted all possible options at the level of the Regional Community Development Council and the Regional Democratic Council and are pleading with the President to put things in place to bring electricity to their community for the Christmas season.
It has been 20 years since the first resident resided in the community and for many others, it has been a decade since they have been requesting these two necessities. To date, there are about 125 households and about 300 houselots in the area; and though the community has not yet been regularised, the residents claim they have been trying to do so for many years.
TIRED
The residents who consist of mostly single mothers expressed frustration of having to regularly fetch water from a nearby creek which is also used for other domestic purposes. Oneka Sampson, a single mother, said the creek is the only other source of water other than a canter truck that distributes water, but not every day.
“If you don’t have money to purchase water from the canter which provides water for $3000, then you have to go down [to] the creek if the rain does not fall and going down the creek is a far way from up the hill here and it not like a normal road that you wouldn’t feel anything and the coming up is even harder,” Sampson lamented.
Of the 125 households, about 15 of these are equipped with generators, while the others have to depend on other means such as candles and lamps. The unavailability of light in the community has resulted in an upsurge in burglaries and robberies, the latest being a few days ago.
UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATION
“Ya can’t get to press ya clothes, them children need to study. There is a lot of Common Entrance and CXC children that can’t get to study; they are damaging their eyes; this is a hiding spot for the thieves,” another resident Colleen Calix said.
Chairman of the Community Development Council, Michael Greene, told this publication on Thursday that residents spent about $330, 000 at $10, 000 per houselot to pay a surveyor to have the community surveyed after they were told by the Linden Utility Services Cooperative Society Limited (LUSCSL) that the area needs to be surveyed before they receive electricity. Residents also pooled their money to purchase materials needed for the process, but Greene claims that they were instructed by the Regional CDC office to discontinue the surveying process and they would provide a recommended surveyor.
“That was since 2015 and up to now no surveyor ain’t come, we desperately want light so we try we best to see what we can do, but they get we stall up and them ain’t doing nothing,” Greene said.
He said Regional Chairman Rennis Morian wrote several letters on behalf of the community to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and other entities and the situation has not changed.
“All ya hearing is that we gon get back to you we will get back to you and nothing else,” the residents told the Guyana Chronicle.
FORCED TO SQUAT
The residents claim that with the unavailability of houselots, they were forced to squat on the lands, but are willing to cooperate with the Ministry of Communities to have the area regularised to benefit from the basic services. They are of the opinion that the area should be regularised as it has been in existence for over a decade.
Minister Valarie Patterson in February at a public consultation in Linden told residents that the ministry will be putting systems in place to regularise squatting lands, but will not be regularising squatting lands on Government reserves and will not be encouraging any further squatting.
Community advocate Denton Osborne told this publication that the residents are now calling on the President to remedy this situation.
“The residents are now trying to jump all of the heads of the local officials and go directly to the President, so that he can pick up the phone and let the folks start moving,” he said. The CDC representatives are also frustrated as the residents are blaming them for not being efficient enough, but they have exhausted all options. The residents said that if they are not granted light and water by December, they will have no other option but to take to the streets.