CONSTRUCTION on the $43M Lethem Town Hall building is expected to be completed by the end of November, while construction or rehabilitative works on several Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) buildings have been completed or are in the process of being completed.

Works have been completed at the Hauraruni/Yarrowkabra NDC building on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, at a cost of $5M. In the Pomeroon Supenaam Region, work has been completed on buildings for the Niles/Cozier and Moruka/Phoenix NDCs.
The buildings are being built by the Ministry of Communities (MoC) as part of the Community Infrastructure Improvement Programme (CIIP), which was allotted some $300M in the 2019 national budget.

“We feel very good,” commented Savitree Tulsidass, deputy chairperson for the Niles/Cozier NDC. Being one of several more recently created NDCs, the council did not yet have a building and in the interim they were using the Martindale Primary School to hold meetings.
Tulsidass said she visited the building last Wednesday and was pleased with how the construction went. The keys to the building are expected to be officially handed over to this NDC next week.

“Right next to the school that’s where the NDC building is, I went there up to today [Wednesday] and we inspect the building, it’s ok, it’s fairly good. We need some furniture, but it have light set up with the solar and everything done set up. They have a little fine things more and then they will hand over the key next week,” Tulsidass related.
After gaining some furniture, she said the NDC next will be working on staffing, starting with the hiring of an overseer, who will function in the capacity of chief administrator of the local democratic organ.

“From the subvention, we said we gon see if we get some money to buy some furniture, but we need an overseer right now. We do the write up to publish to get an overseer,” she said.

At the Moruca/Phoenix NDC, Chairman, Sheldon English was able to collect the keys on Wednesday for their NDC building. He too was pleased with the work done and happy to finally have an official location for the NDC. Prior to the building being completed, his NDC was utilising the building which housed the community’s health centre.
The NDC building was constructed in the same compound with the health centre.

WORK OKAY
“The building is ok, up to [Wednesday] we went into the building. There’s no problem to complain about with the works done on the building,” English shared.
Like the Niles/Cozier NDC, Moruca/Phoenix is now focused on furniture acquisition and the hiring of an overseer to get the NDC’s work truly off the ground.

Inspection of the NDC building was also carried out by the MoC and it was noted that as simple as constructing a building may be, it was not an easy feat getting it done in the Pomeroon Region.

“I’m fairly satisfied with the works. Despite the challenges and logistics of getting materials in the Pomeroon, I think the contractors did a reasonably good job,” commented MoC Coordinator of Engineering Services, Naeem Khan.

He added, “There was a lot of challenges as it relates to flooding; we had a lot of water logging in the area. Bear in the mind the site conditions was not conducive right away to start the construction. Where we stand right now I think the contractors did fairly well, completing it in a reasonable time. I am very satisfied with the rate the project was done. Those NDC buildings that we built in the Pomeroon are even better than many of the NDC buildings we have right now, and those buildings are fully powered by solar.”

The Niles/Cozier and Moruka/Phoenix NDC buildings are two of three NDC buildings scheduled for rehabilitation in Pomeroon Supenaam Region, the other being a building for the Kitty/Providence NDC.
The NDCs were established for the recently concluded Local Government Elections. Works are expected to begin within the next few days at Kitty/Providence NDC.

“The third building will commence next week, that one couldn’t start at the same time as the others started because we had to build a boat landing to gain access to the land,” Khan explained.

Together, the three NDC buildings cost an estimated $38M, while the landing for the Kitty/Providence NDC was an additional $4M. Also in the works is rehabilitation works on the Lamaha/Yarrowkabra NDC building. This is set to commence before the end of this week, and run for two weeks. The cost is estimated at $1.6M.

The Aranaputa NDC in the Upper Takatu-Upper Essequibo Region and Profit/Rising Sun are closer to having new buildings as well, with tenders for those buildings recently closing off and currently being evaluated.