Yakusari Village
Yakusari Village (Carl Croker photos)
Yakusari Village (Carl Croker photos)

‘The bread basket’ of Guyana welcomes development

THIS week the Pepperpot Magazine journeyed to the far-flung village of Yakusari, Black Bush Polder, Corentyne, Berbice. The people of this village are simple and hardworking. The village has one main access road in and out and no internal streets, but the residents believe that there is much need for upgrading due to its muddy state.

Yakusari is the very first village along the Black Bush Polder Main Access Road, seven miles inland from the public road. However, the Black Bush Polder Road is entirely 22 miles long and it spans five villages which are Yakusari, Mibicuri, Johanna, Zambia and Lesbeholden.

The population in Yakusari is about 1,300 and the main source of income is farming. About eight years now the people have been complaining about low water pressure and no potable water supply during the morning hours in their homes.
The village has electricity, no landline phones but internet service only on cellphones, which is not very reliable. In Yakusari village there is a health centre, a mandir, a mosque, a market and a primary school.

The main Hospital is a village away, which is Mibicuri. Yakusari village is located between the villages of #43 and Bengal, on the Corentyne corridor.

The people of this village would welcome all-weather roads, so gone would be the days when they had to wade through ankle-deep mud from their homes to get from one point to another in the village. A few wooden bridges linking muddy footpaths to another were constructed late last year and the people were very pleased, because they replaced rotting, one-person bridges.

The people have motorcycles, bicycles and others have cars, and tractors which they use to access the muddy dams, which serve as internal streets and to get to the farmlands, which are very vast. The residents expressed that their immediate needs are potable water supply, all-weather roads and streets, street lights, landline phones and internet service.

The schoolchildren in this village also deal with the difficulty of walking through the thick mud in casual clothing to get to the road, then wash off and change into their uniforms. Nevertheless, Yakusari is considered to be a ‘breadbasket’ where almost everyone grows food and the healthiest boulanger, ochro, peppers and bora come from this part of the country.

Despite the challenges, they are making the most of life by working many jobs to put food on the table and they are welcoming, friendly people, who would leave their farms and take the time to accompany you around the community, even in the muddy conditions.
The people of this village told the team that the rain doesn’t miss the village and it would rain almost every day. They have suffered many floods; last year was the worst, since many crops were destroyed and farms were inundated.

There are no real opportunities for youths in this village and many have no choice but to get jobs as labourers on farms to assist in bringing in an income in the home, residents said. Most youths, who seek tertiary education would have to leave the village to attend secondary schools in nearby villages and the transportation costs add up.

The people reported that the wholesale buyers who visit the village to buy their produce would pay them as low as $40 per pound for ochroes and they really don’t benefit a profit at all. This village runs deep and there is plenty of land, yet some people do not have a plot and are renting houses and are farming on the dams in this community.

At the rear of the village, many have utilised the reserve dams to plant their produce, while others have large-scale rice cultivations that stretch for as far as the eye can see. There are three rice mills in Black Bush Polder, but getting there is a tall task, given the condition of the main access road which is often traversed by large trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles.

The residents have expressed hope that in the near future they will be able to see some improvements to the road.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.