THE residents of several Berbice communities recently told Minister of Housing and Water, Colin Croal, that their inability to access the internet was hampering their children’s education.

In this regard, they have asked that Information Communication Technology (ICT) hubs be set up in their respective communities, so that children can access online learning.

Minister Croal visited 12 communities in Region Six, including, Lesbeholden,
Ankerville, Mibicuri, Yakusar, Number 64, and Number 76 Villages. The series of community meetings started off at West and East Canje and continued in the villages of Kilcoy and Belvedere.

Residents used the opportunity to ask for urgent attention and action on the provision of internet access within their communities now that school has reopened, but is now online.

Omar Aziz, 35, of Belvedere said the ICT hubs will be an essential need for children of the community.

“The community is a very large community with lots of children who attend school, and not everyone has access to the internet and computers, so an ICT hub within the community will help children to complete their research and assignments,” he added.

Many others shared the same view, including 42-year-old Althea Minty, a mother of two from Kilcoy/Chesney, who made it clear that due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, many of the children in the community cannot gain internet access to complete their school work.

“I was wondering if it [is] possible for us to get a few E-Government networks in the scheme to assist children with school assignments,” she said.

According to Minty, children in the area are unable to view the Learning Channel which airs the Ministry of Education programmes because of the poor television signal.

Meanwhile, some of the other issues raised at the community visit, included poor water services, squatting, prolonged wait for titles to their lands, deplorable roads, house lot applications, lack of street lights, poor customer service at public buildings and unoccupied lots with overgrown grass.

The meetings held were a follow-up to a visit made by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha Minister.

Minister Croal, in responding to the residents, committed to having the issues they raised fixed in a timely manner.

In the coming weeks, the local NDC’s will be compiling information on leakages from GWI mains to have repair works commence. In cases where some of these communities are suffering from low levels of services, assessments will be done to find possible solutions.

In the long term, the villages of Fyrish, Chesney, Belvedere, Ankerville and Lesbeholden, Black Bush Polder can expect new wells and distribution network.

”What is required is for us to develop additional wells and that is part of our medium-term solution. Also, they have to be improved service for faster customer response when they report leakage,” Minister Croal noted.

Speaking directly about Housing, the Minister mentioned several deficiencies in the current system and assured that all of them were being examined.

He also spoke of the Ministry’s aggressive housing drive, which will see 10,000 serviced lots being distributed annually and the distribution of more than 2000 titles in the coming months.

Meanwhile, for the issues outside of the Housing and Water sector, the Minister referred to the budget measures which speak directly to those issues.

The Minister outlined that there are provisions in the budget for the rehabilitation of road networks across the country, as well as an allocation for solar street lights.

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*** Photo Saved As: ICT AND ICT 1
ICT 2: Minister Collin Croal speaks to residents of Canefield New Area.
ICT 1: A resident of Canefield New Area airs her concern to Minister Croal.