…residents of Central Rupununi village laud gov’ts efforts in developing community

DESPITE being a small satellite village in the Central Rupununi district, with a population of approximately 286 Indigenous People, the residents and Senior Councillor of Quarrie, Phillip Baretto, has expressed high praise to the government, for not overlooking them and ensuring that they too, benefit from the good life promised by President David Granger.
Baretto posited that he is very optimistic about the future of his people and the development of the village, particularly in the areas of agriculture and tourism. “There are a lot of developments taking place; infrastructure, farming and tourism…the central government is very helpful to our community, for me personally, I would like to thank the government for putting so much into a small community like ours,” he said.

Rather than to let these opportunities pass by, the residents have ingeniously decided upon a way to ensure these provisions are exploited and maximum benefits are derived for each household. “We have formed a Co-op; Quarrie Eco Tourism and Agriculture Co-operative limited – I am a member of it and we have about 25 registered members,” Baretto related. The idea of a co-operative was birthed after the Hinterland Employment Youth Services, (HEYS) beneficiaries, pitched eco-tourism as their business venture. The aim is to exploit the tourism gems that are available in the township. One of the main gems is the Quarrie Waterfalls.

Recently the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), dug a water catchment in the community to aid in its agricultural development, but the ingenuity of the residents have pushed them to derive a two-fold benefit from the catchment: water for agriculture and water for tourism. The reflection of the sky into the water, giving it a blue ‘beach-like’ colour, will allow visitors to have a feel of the ‘Island’ in the Rupununi.

“The main objective is that people come and visit the falls, we also have a mini cattle ranch, we can carry our visitors there and right now…..we want to push this because we see that it will create jobs for our people, it will bring in a flow of money, we will find people will stay in the village rather than to go out to the village to look for work, so we are moving in that direction,” the SC said.

The villagers are presently constructing a multi-purpose building where we can use the room for craft-making and catering for our visitors. This has been made possible through a $14M grant from the Ministry of Social Protection that will be used to accommodate tourists.

In addition to tourism, agriculture is also reaping much benefit in Quarrie. Along with the water catchment project, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has also embarked on a rice-farming project in the community; the first of its kind to make available an alternative staple for farmers, in addition to cassava, when the dry season does not allow for its high production. “We have an acre plus of rice cultivation there now. At the first try we see this could be done, so it is like an experience for us, and I want to believe this will help in our staple food, it will help the cassava because normally, we does only use the cassava as a staple diet and we see now the rice will come in and we are hoping next year, we will have a bigger production and I am seeing that happening,” the SC posited. The water catchment is also boosting agriculture, since it is making water available for farmers during the dry season. Many times, as long as one year, there is no rainfall in the Rupununi district. “The water catchment is very important because in the dry season, our cows have to go far to look for water, so with this water catchment, our cows will remain close so we can monitor them and the farmers too don’t have to go and look for water, so that has been a very great help to our community,” he said.