By Michel Outridge

THIS week the Pepperpot Magazine visited the community of Timehri which is divided into sections: Timehri North, a squatting area behind the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA); the Timehri Docks area, which has the wharf and the old government housing scheme; Lions Road, which is home to many citrus farms; the South Dakota Circuit area; the Ice House Road; the Guyana Defence Force Camp Stephenson Base and Red Road.
Timehri is a hotspot for many roadside businesses and is home to hundreds of Guyanese and has the nursery and primary schools, a police station, Bounty Farms Limited (BFL), a new Timehri neighbourhood market and the CJIA, which employs many residents.
The Lions Road extends for about a mile from the main road to Haruruni Creek.
The Pepperpot Magazine went on a walkabout in Timehri, East Bank Demerara and spoke to many residents about their ways of life and developments.

One such person was Adrian Allicock, who even though he is not a resident of Timehri, is there almost every day for work.

He is from Sandhills, a small community located on a bluff (hill) in the riverine area of the Demerara River and is a small-scale logger like most folks in those communities.
Allicock, like most of his fellow villagers of Princess Carolina, Demerara River, utilises the Timehri Docks wharf to ferry goods, logs and other things to and from their villages.
In a sit-down with the Pepperpot Magazine at Timehri Docks wharf, Allicock related that he is a native of Princess Carolina and has never left the village for very long periods, as it is his home. As mentioned earlier, he is a small-scale logger and would ferry logs from his village to the wharf where he would arrange markets for the logs.

Allicock added that for some time he used to work with the bauxite company at Sandhills but quit and re-grouped and formed an association of small-time loggers, which has about 30 members — all from that community.

“We pall off the riverside and tried to make it presentable, because we does spend a lot of time here when we bring out our produce, logs etc., and it is a main point in and out from the Demerara River to Timehri Docks,” he said.

Allicock noted that there are a handful of villages along the Demerara River such as, Sandhills, Low Wood, Princess Carolina, Elizabeth Ann and others.
He stated that residents of these villages are mostly farmers and loggers and the riverine communities have no potable water, no electricity, no landline phone service and they rely heavily on generators to do a lot of work.

Allicock, however, expressed his disappointment with the way some things are going in which a businessman, who is not from the area, is getting special preference over the locals in the logging business.

“Imagine we live there and we can’t get approval to extend our logging concessions, but an outsider is there and getting parcels of land and is putting us small people out of business because we have no logs right now,” he said.
Another issue he highlighted is the illegal daily dumping of garbage, by a particular individual at the wharf.

“We does maintain and clean up this area because we does be here a lot and we like to keep the environment clean and we even put logs as a seating area for your convenience, but some people coming here and dump garbage and it makes the place filthy because when the tides come in it pushes the empty bottles and so under the wharf, it goes nowhere,” he said.

Meanwhile, Indranie Rajkumar, a resident of Timehri Docks who lives within close proximity of the wharf, expressed her displeasure at the behaviour of some of the men who utilise the wharf, especially at nights, because they are loud and their language is not suitable for children.

“Sometimes it gets so bad we cannot sleep because of the disturbance and the children cannot study for classes; so I wish they can exercise consideration for us to co-exist because the police does nothing about it,” she said.
The mother of three told the Pepperpot Magazine that apart from that issue, Timehri Docks is a nice place to live and earn.

Rajkumar is a homemaker and in her spare time, she tends to her potted plants and flowers. She also makes ice for sale.
She also lives next door to her extended family and is very comfortable in the village.

Timehri Docks Wharf
Last September the construction of the new timber wharf at the Timehri Docks was completed and it is a major point for residents from the Demerara River.

The wharf construction was pegged at $13.9M, according to Chairperson of the Regional Democratic Council for Demerara-Mahaica, Genevieve Allen, which forms part of the region’s approved capital works for the current financial year.

The wharf replaced a dilapidated facility and brought relief to farmers and others who reside in the riverine communities.