MINISTERS of Housing and Water, Colin Croal and Susan Rodriques, distributed 300 house lots in the communities of Fort Ordinance, Williamsburg, Hampsire and Number 76 Village, East Berbice, Region Six on Tuesday. With the most recent allocations at the Tain Campus, the ministry has surpassed the initial goal of 3,000 as was set for national allocation for 2020. According to Rodrigues, the ministry is bent on ensuring the realisation of the PPP/C campaign promise to provide 50,000 house lots in five years. As such, she noted that, given the short time upon assumption of office, some four months ago, the government had set a goal to distribute 3,000 lots across the country. It has since surpassed that target as some 3,600 house lots have been distributed thus far, thanks to the hardworking staff of the ministry and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).

Minister Rodrigues noted that there are many who are anxiously awaiting their call to receive their house lots and she urged them to be patient. “We take the responsibility and the knowledge of knowing that you are entitled as Guyanese to affordable housing and we have a mandate to provide you with, so we take that commitment very seriously and I hope that this exercise and our track record not only in the Ministry of Housing and Water but our government, all the things you have seen and read about that our government has been doing, speak for themselves.  We will stay steadfast, committed to all of the promises we made to the Guyanese people and this delivery of promise, this delivery of development of improvement to your lives will be done across the board. Our President has said and we endorsed we are a government for all Guyanese and that everyone will benefit under the PPP/C administration; judge us not by our words but by our action,” said the Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water.

The minister noted that government’s achievements in the housing and water sectors over the past few months were remarkable despite the constraints of the pandemic. “When we started, all the odds were stacked against us. We are living in a pandemic. We had to develop our own programmes and policies and develop a strategic plan on just how we are going to fulfill our commitments. We have done so, we have started. When we started our ‘Dreams realised title distribution’, it was to encourage homeownership, encourage family lives, community lives and we want to ensure there is occupancy in all of our communities so that you can have neighbours and that within your communities you can have businesses that you can go to and you can feel like you are part of a wholesome community, that is our mission over the next five years and we do plan to deliver on that,” Minister Rodrigues noted.

NO ORDINARY FEAT

Minister of Housing and Water, Colin Croal echoed similar sentiments and noted that the distribution of 3,600 house lots in a short space of time was no ordinary feat. “We could not reach to this point today if we don’t acknowledge the support and role of the President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, for ensuring when he met with the management of the Ministry level and CHPA, he tasked us to work hard and he will support us .We were challenged to ensure we can deliver a number of houselots in this year; hence, we worked through the Christmas period and it is because of his support in ensuring the other supporting agencies such as GuySuCo, NICIL, Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC) and the various regions that they work in collaboration with us so that we can have the lands made available and vested in a timely manner so that we can respond to meet that target and we are well on the way to meeting our task ahead which is to deliver 50,000 houselots within the first five years of the PPP/C government,” Minister Croal said to a resounding applause.

He added that in light of the house lot distribution, Region Six can expect the injection of over $1.2B in the economy for infrastructural works alone. “When you take into consideration the ongoing works and the minimal work for the allocations in 2021, we are talking about the injection of about $1.2 billion into the economy of Region Six on infrastructure works for roads, drainage, water connections and lighting. That alone, we are not talking about the housing construction, will see the creation of a number of opportunities for employment as well as wealth generation. We also therefore and I want to echo the calls that were made earlier of encouraging persons to start the process to ensure you are on your way to building your own home,” he said.

The Housing Ministry is working round-the-clock to try and clear the backlog of over 70,000 registered applications in the system and Minister Croal asked the residents of Region Five to exercise a little patience since there are quite a few applications that are being finalised. A ministerial outreach to the region is expected in January or early February 2021. Apart from house lot allocations, the minister said the ministry is seeking to have fupding in the 2021 budget allocated for the supply of potable water for more communities across the country as well as the construction of 200 houses as promised by President Ali.

“To compliment our housing drive, in the budget for 2021, funding will be requested to provide better water service for residents in Region Six. In our work programmes, we have made provision for water connectivity, in addition to road and bridges,” he said. He continued: “In addition to the house lot programme, you will see the construction of 200 houses in Region Six in the communities of Williamsburg as well as Fort Ordinance. In fact, 100 each and those are part of what we do at the Ministry of Housing and Water, that is, to encourage public Private partnership. So very early in 2021 you will see the commencement of the construction of those houses. We are currently in the finalising stages with our private partner.”

BIG THINGS EXPECTED
Earlier, Regional Chairman, David Armogan, in brief remarks, reminisced on the days when President Ali was minister responsible for the Housing Sector and made Guyana the envy of the Caribbean with his plans. He anticipates that the same will now obtain given the pace at which the current ministers are working. “Towards the end of 2020, the last government sought to send out letters of promises for house lots but I am not sure how those promises will be treated because our government is moving in the direction of clearing the backlog. We are moving very quickly, we are identifying new areas round the region, so, over time your desires will be fulfilled; we are aware every single person, especially if you are married and have a family, you deserve to have a home of your own and so our government has promised in the manifesto and is moving in that direction.

We want to congratulate all who have received and want to ask others to have patience, your turn will come shortly,” he said. Meanwhile, Versha and Shaun Leitch, both teachers were among the 300 who were allocated a house lot on Tuesday. Versha was very excited that her “dream has been realised” after applying for a house lot in 2009. “It is a dream realised to be an owner of a piece of land, especially through the government. I want to encourage other young persons to do the same. It may take a while but the feeling of accomplishment when you finally receive it, is totally worth the wait!”