Circuitville residents working to develop squatting community

FOR MANY years the residents of ‘Circuitville’ – a squatting community situated on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway – have been dependent on a small creek and most importantly their ability to capture rainwater but life is getting tougher for residents there, particularly during the dry season.

In a quest to secure one of the earth’s most precious resources, residents of Circuitville’, Yarrowkabra West, have been clearing unwanted vegetation to create a pond where water from a nearby spring can flow. It was approaching midday when the Pepperpot Magazine visited the community but Jose DeRocha and his neighbours had been out clearing the unwanted vegetation, since before the crack of dawn.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL
DeRocha – a Brazilian, who has attained his Guyanese citizenship – did not say much as he was in hot pursuit of finishing his work, but Celia Dear said the struggle has been real.
Dear, who moved to Circuitville 15 years ago when it was mostly inhabited with trees, explained that when there is no rainfall, the more than 400 residents there have no other choice than to resort to a creek that falls within the parameters of the community. “It is really hard on us. No rain means that we have to fetch water from the creek, and that’s a good pull,” Dear said.

The creek, located downhill, is close to a mile away from where the residents reside.
Neisha McGarrell, a 37-year-old mother of three, said when the finance is available she would purchase drinking water from a canter that comes into the community but there are many days when she would have to resort to the creek for drinking water. It is also the creek that many residents use for washing and bathing.

McGarrell and her family moved to Circuitville more than two years ago after they had found it difficult to pay their house rent in the more regularised parts of the region.
“Since 2005, I applied for a plot of land from Housing, and I ain’t get through yet and house rent is not an easy thing to pay, so I decided to move,” McGarrell said, as she explained her reason for moving to the squatting community. “I love up here. Despite we ain’t get water, I like the area, very quiet,” she added.

AIMS AT DEVELOPMENT
The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has been making moves to supply residents there with potable water but has encountered some challenges.
“Access to electricity in Circuitville, located on the Soesdyke Linden Highway, is a major determining factor for the supply of potable water to that community,” GWI Public Relations Officer (PRO) Leana Bradshaw, told the Pepperpot Magazine, while adding that the water authority is currently engaging the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) in order to secure electricity to power a water supply system in the area.

In the meantime, GWI is examining the establishment of an elevated storage in order to provide residents with potable water, Bradshaw further added, noting too that it is the intention of the utility to rehabilitate an existing well in the community, from which water will be pumped to the elevated storage tank then distributed to the residents using gravity feed.

“Plans are also underway for other major infrastructural works to be done in order to deliver potable water to the residents of the Circuitville community,” the PRO said.
Melissa Mundo, one of the community leaders in Circuitville, told the Pepperpot Magazine that in addition to no potable water, the community lacks basic infrastructure including, no roads, no school or health care facility. But she acknowledged that the lack of these critical facilities are as a result of it being considered a squatting community.

CHANGING THE STATUS OF THE COMMUNITY
Over the past five years, Mundo and other community leaders have been pushing for the regularisation of Circuitville. Residents have been meeting with officers from the Lands and Surveys Commission with the hope of regularising the area.
“In 2014, I went into Lands and Survey…196 of us went in and we made our first little initial payments…some of us didn’t go but I am hoping that something could be done for us,” Mundo said.

Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC) Commissioner, Trevor Benn told the Pepperpot Magazine that regularisation of Circuitville is a work in progress but the Commission has encountered a number of stumbling blocks that are hindering the process.
Benn explained that the Commission has already conducted a survey to determine the occupancy of the area, however, persons are increasingly erecting structures making the process difficult.

The GLSC Commissioner said residents need to cease all development in the area to allow for the Commission to complete its work. However, he emphasised that the Commission’s officers have commenced the groundwork.

RECREATION
Optimistic about Circuitville’s future, Samuel Simpson – a resident – said it is his hope to build a recreational facility in the area where the young and the old can interact. He said on the weekends the men in the community often times engage in a game of football, however, it is his hope to incorporate a volleyball court into the recreational facility to cater for the women as well.

The troubles aside, Circuitville is the home to a Full Gospel Church. While residents live in the community, many of them, particularly the men, travel far afield to work while their wives remain at home and care for the children. Their children attend school in neighbouring communities such as the Yarrowkabra Primary School. Health facilities are also accessed in neighbouring communities along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.