By Faith Greene
The Pepperpot Magazine visited the Neighborhood Democratic Council (NDC), responsible for Toevlugt to Patentia, West Demerara. According to the Overseer at the NDC Nekisha Lewis, this NDC is responsible for eight villages in West Demerara: Toevlugt, Malgre-tout, Stanleytown, Belle View, Good Intent, Sisters, Wales and Patentia.
The services and functions of the NDC are to collect rates and taxes; clean residential, cultivation trenches and drains; maintain the burial ground; maintain internal roads and Dams; construct or maintain footpath bridges; and maintain and operate river kokers in a good state.

Lewis said that she would be grateful if communities that are not represented, like Vriesland and Vive- La- Force, were able to have NDCs of their own to avoid them travelling miles away to Good Intent.
“The people stop up to Patentia, so for them to come out, it’s either they come with a taxi, or they ride, and the distance is long. So they could have an NDC at the back there because there are lots of villages at the back there,” said Lewis.
Although a lot of information could not be provided on Patentia, it was said that there are around 2,00 residents there.

She listed out three parts of Patentia: New Scheme, Patentia West and Patentia East. “In Patentia West, we [have] Area L. Then there’s a part, Skull City, that part isn’t regularizesed,” she said.
In terms of community enhancements, Lewis said that they are presently focusing on rehabilitating the roads. “The NDC is looking to get back ownership of the Center, at Patentia, because it was being managed by GUYSUCO. But the Estate closed down recently so, until we get back permission to do work there, only then we could develop,” she explained. “Before the recent change, they were planning on rebuilding a factory there. Probably they would have done juice, plant the fruits and probably export local juice. But that project was scrapped,” she said about the sugar factory.

Another topic for concern among residents was the lack of employment opportunities in Patentia. Residents would have said that their loved ones have had to travel grave distances to be able to provide for their families.
When asked about the employment of the residents, she said that the government of Guyana’s Part time jobs are available for residents.

She said even with everything happening in Patentia, more persons are moving in. She noted that those who do leave do so for employment elsewhere.
Furthermore, she said Patentia is a residential area, however, they do have problems where residents still rare their cattle there. She said that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would have to visit the Village to assess the situation before any penalties for this are given.

She said that the only thing that NDC has done is to ensure that residents are sensitised on the sanitation process for animals. That is the cleaning and maintenance of the pen the animals stay and the implementation of proper drainage systems.
“But if it’s at the state where it’s really terrible to the resident, the EPA would step in and they would probably stop them from rearing or give further advice,” she said
She said that the EPA had at a previous time, stopped a man in Patentia from rearing pigs. According to Lewis, the man would rear and kill, then sell on the market, however, due to several complaints from residents, the EPA stepped in, just in time to end that.