By Nafeeza Yahya

RESIDENTS of the remote villages of Mara and Jeremiah on the East Bank
of Berbice are calling on the relevant authorities to look into their
plight as they feel they are being neglected due to their location.
Mara is situated 25 miles from New Amsterdam.

The residents told Guyana Chronicle that they have been living without
potable water for the past three years and they do not have a functioning
health centre nor electricity.Proper drainage and roads in their communities are also in a deplorable state.

When this publication visited the community by road, the 25 miles
journey from New Amsterdam to Mara which should have taken
approximately 40 minutes, took over two hours due to the deplorable state
of the East Bank Berbice Road.
Upon arrival, residents were seen gathered by the non-functioning Mara pump station to air their frustration.

Aubrey Chisolm, 50, who has been a resident of the community all his life, said he is frustrated but will not re-locate since he has nowhere else to go.
He said the community’s well has not been functioning for the past three
years and residents are dependent on rainfall or overflow from the lines
for drinking.
Water used for cooking and washing, he said, has to come from the trenches.

“This condition we have been facing for the past three years, we have
been without proper water. When we catch it, we gotto wait till it
settle and drink it because we have no other alternative. I would be
thankful for the Government or any one in authority to look into this,
because this concern was raised already and they promised someone
would come and look into this matter. Over a year ago they came, and to
date, nothing.”
As he showed Guyana Chronicle a bucket of murky rusted water, he
lamented that many people get ill from drinking the water and some
have since resorted to using the water from the trenches instead.

“That is the kind of water the school children gotta settle and drink
because we have no other alternative. We just depending on rain to get
proper water, if not, sometime when the water come in is with frogs and
all kind of nasty things,and because of this we depend on rain or just
use this same water and suffer. We settle it and drink it. Kids have
become sick, we does be glad when the rain fall.”

This publication was told that other villages along the route
receive potable water every day from the Regional Democratic
Council. However, the water reaches as far as the village of Light Town,
some seven miles before the village of Mara.

Just then 76-year-old Martha Chisolm, a relative of Aubrey, who has also lived in the community all her life,added that whenever someone gets ill or needs
medication, they have to travel to New Amsterdam to seek medical attention by hiring a taxi for approximately $10,000 per trip,due to the state of the roads.

SHUT DOWN
She explained that there was a health centre in Mara that would service the needs of the residents of the two villages as well as the riverain communities; however, the medic was transferred a few years back and the health centre has been shut down since.

“The medic get transfer and since then we have no health centre, then
they used to get a once-a-month outreach,but since the middle of 2016
no one came in here. They would come with a bus and share tablets or
take out person who need urgent medical attention but that nah happen
now.”

“One time I hear they were going to redo this health centre. I hear the chairman was to come but two nurses came and wait for him but he went somewhere else … and after it get late, the nurses left then we hear they say the health centre will be at Plegth Anker. Here we have sickly persons who can barely move; we need a

health centre here. How will they reach to Plegth Anker, who will take
them? I am a diabetic, look last night my husband took in ill, we had
to hire a car to take him into New Amsterdam, by the time we reach, he
pressure and sugar high, high. If we had a health centre here, it
wouldn’t. He would have gotten treatment early in the morning. We had
to pay $10,000 for the hire .The road is rough, when you do take a sick
person on that road only God can help you. You call an ambulance none
available,” another resident lamented.

Randolph Plass, Chairman of the Concern Citizens Group of Mara,said the roads, beside being riddled with “crater sized potholes”, is overgrown with vegetation that is impeding the free flow of traffic.

HUGE POTHOLES
“The road which is in a deplorable state, the bamboo is forming across
the road . In the mornings when you have to get to New Amsterdam that
is like 4:30 – 5, we gotta stop and remove the bamboos from the
roadways. Sometime when the rain fall heavily, the bamboo blocks up the
road and sometime you coming through you don’t even notice it and blam
accident. We are asking if something urgently can be done to address
the issues and to also address the huge pot holes.”

Ross said due to the state of the roads, taxis charge $10,000 per trip to take anyone in or out of the village, and in most instances, pensioners are forced to pay the sum whenever they go to collect their pension. As such, he is asking the authorities to look into the matter and look at the possibility of
making some provision for transportation to take the pensioners out to New
Amsterdam or have someone come into the community and make the
payments there instead.

“The pensioners in this community, some very sickly got to go to New
Amsterdam to collect their pension. A car takes about $10,000;what
remains of those pensioners afterwards? Please, if someone can make
some provisions for these people, it is very difficult for them.”

Ross also lamented that the state of the drainage and irrigation canals
for the mainly farming community is unacceptable. He also noted that
the irrigation canal at Jermiah is silted-up, making it almost impossible
for the residents to access irrigation waters.
“We don’t have any proper drainage or irrigation here, is one extreme
to the next. Right now is dry season and the water level drop. We can’t get enough water to cook, wash, drink or do nothing. When it rains, is flood. Them canals silt up bad. I living here for over 50 years and I can’t remember when last them clean or dig any of them canals.”

Residents also showed this publication the Mara Police Station
building which has a padlock on its door. They said it has been that
way for the past six years.

Mara and Jermiah are the last two villages accessible by road along the East Bank of Berbice and are home to approximately 200 residents who do large-scale farming. Their produce are sold at New Amsterdam.
They are calling on the authorities to look into the issues affecting them, especially the water situation as they are afraid there might be an outbreak of water-borne diseases due to the quality of water.