JUST this past week, I travelled to Mahdia, Guyana’s newest town, which is nestled in the heart of the country, in Region Eight ( Potaro-Siparuni). And while I can’t speak about what Mahdia was like before, or how much the community has changed because it has become a town, I can share all the ways the residents have affirmed that the community has improved.

Mahdia is a central mining location, and it has been for many years. It connects about 19 other communities in the region and just this year, it was officially declared a town.

I think it bodes well to say that Mahdia ascending to township status is not a mere ceremonial rite or anything of the sort. In fact, ascending to a township is filled with a litany of benefits.

First of all, it allows the people of Mahdia to become actively engaged in their governance by way of the decentralisation of government responsibility, which fosters the development of a local government system. What this means is that they elect other people in Mahdia to represent their interests and work towards developing the town.

As a town, Mahdia has the ability to now set up a town council (which it has done); this council should be able to generate revenue by way of taxes, etc to engage in developmental projects in the community. Moreover, there is more leeway for the community to lobby for and execute these development projects.

During my recent visit, the council was getting itself together in preparation for when it would start all the work to develop the community. The Mayor of Mahdia, David Adams, indicated that the council also has so many plans to improve the community– through better waste management practices, to improved access to technology and even bolstering economic activity.

Additionally, Mahdia being a town also means that various critical government services would be made available here. That provides easier access to the citizens. And as a town, it is expected that economic activities would be stimulated given all that changed.

And again, while I can’t personally vouch for infrastructural development, all the residents I spoke to indicated that Mahdia has received a huge facelift in recent times. Of particular importance would be the development works done to the many roadways.

Before I get into the roadways, let me just ascertain that Guyana is nice– without a doubt—nice, bad. But the travelling? In some instances, it can be just a bit too strenuous. And getting to and fro Mahdia, by trail instead of flying, is definitely an experience.

It took about eight hours to drive from Georgetown to get to the town. That was enough time for me to catch a decent amount of sleep– except that I couldn’t because I wasn’t accustomed to the trail. But it turned out that I was travelling at a time when the trail had been significantly improved and there were so many new bridges built in place. Even when I was travelling around Mahdia to the Denham Bridge, it was evident that developmental works had recently been done to the roadways. I mean, the black and yellow paint on the bridges were still bright!

And imagine, all the while I was complaining about the twists and turns and humps and bumps of the bus ride to and fro- much less if I had travelled previously.

I share this to say that what these new developments present, are opportunities for Mahdia to move from being just a mining spot to a vibrant town bustling with economic activity. I think infrastructural and institutional developments are key to the community mobilising and developing itself.

And what is pleasing is that ‘Mahdians’ have seen this and have decided to play a role in this. Few of these people, including the mayor himself, have opted to invest into the town and make it a more developed place– instead of leaving it as is. I think it is no coincidence that the people of Mahdia elected business persons from within the community to serve on their town council.