— residents say community now placed on the map

By Vanessa Braithwaite
THE aesthetics of the Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice community of Ituni has been significantly boosted and residents are now upbeat about asphalted roads that are being constructed in their community for the very first time. Ituni, like many other communities in Region 10, has its history etched in bauxite mining and is identified by red bauxite dust and loam surfaced roads.

After years of neglect, these dirt roads were ‘decorated’ with pot holes and huge craters, since Ituni is also a logging community and logging trucks often leave their mark when leaving the roads.

Today, the rhetoric has changed and the community is now benefitting from paved roads, which residents explained is more than just a good look and a smooth drive, but an entire transformation for the community.

Resident, Nicola Bennette said the road will improve the social growth of their community and alluded to the upcoming Republic Anniversary celebration that will be done in fine style. “I never saw Ituni getting tar road, knowing the condition it was in back then, it was terrible. For example, our Mash parade coming up, the road will be nice to march on. It will be a real improvement to our Mash celebration,” Bennette said.
The road will also alleviate flooding that occurs in various areas in the community because of the drains that have been installed. While this is not the first time the community received roads, she said that now it brings residents great joy to see that roads are not only thrown at them, but the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) is delivering quality roads, that will last longer.

It is for this reason residents feel the community is now given recognition or as they put it, ‘placed on the map’.

“I actually see that we are now part on the map, Ituni is now part of Guyana because we were way down the line. I must say thanks to our government for putting Ituni on the map, bringing us proper roads, I never saw Ituni getting tar roads, knowing the condition is was in back then, it was terrible,” resident Yetunde Pluck-Abel said.
In addition to the upgrade to community in-roads, residents also applauded the government for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the Linden to Ituni trail. In comparison to how it was before, residents said that it took approximately three hours from Linden to Ituni, now the ride is about 45 minutes on a smooth, well-maintained road.

OPENED UP OPPORTUNITY
Pluck-Abel said the road now gives herself and other residents the opportunity to pursue tertiary studies in Linden. “We would go to classes in Linden and we would leave and be back in Ituni the same afternoon because you are spending less than an hour on the road, compared to three hours before. It was terrible. So it is not just a road but it is helping us to better our selves educationally,” she said.

Chairman of the Ituni Community Development Council (CDC), Curt Murphy, said he is pleased with the attention given to his community over the last four years. In addition to the roads, Murphy said the community now has its own pavilion which is being used for sporting and other social activities. In the past, residents were forced to sit on old bleachers. A modern doctors’ quarter was also constructed in the community and healthcare will be improved since a resident doctor will now manage the community’s health centre. In the past, it was managed by a medex.

The community is also receiving up to eight hours water supply following the installation of a brand new well by the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI). Residents also benefitted from empowerment training from various government ministries to get them started in agriculture and entrepreneurship. The objective is to push residents to diversify the economy of the community that is heavily dependent on logging. Logging is still supported by the government, as only recently, two new logging concessions were approved for the Ituni Small Loggers Association.

Like Ituni, other outlying communities in the Upper Demerara and Upper Berbice District are also benefitting from tangible development. Ituni residents are calling for a better ambulance to transfer patients to the Linden Hospital Complex in a safe and timely manner and for a school bus so that the students attending secondary school in Linden can travel daily, given the improved state of the road, rather than to be housed at the dormitory.