Local resident active in community development thankful for recent donation to help boost security
THE volunteer work associated with Bonasika Creek, Essequibo River Community Policing Group (CPG) has significantly been boosted through a gift from the Ministry of Home Affairs in the form of a 40-horsepower boat engine.
It was presented to Rural Constable Bishnu Lochan, attached to the Neighbourhood Police of Mole Island, Lower Bonasika Creek, to facilitate river patrols.
Before this gesture, Lochan took it upon himself to utilise his very own engine and boat to do patrols and other CPG-related work in the past. However, he is delighted to receive the 40-HP boat engine used to do CPG work and community policing.
The engine/boat is used to patrols four districts such as: Bonasika, Morashee, Fort Island and Aliki. He reported that for the past 14 years, he has been involved in the CPG and has been using his own boat, engine and gas to do the work. Lochan added that he received the boat engine last year.
The Rural Constable stated that he and two others are responsible for policing the four districts and all reports must be followed up. Lochan stated that there are eight CPG members in Bonasika Creek and he believes that the work should be shared collectively.
“With this gift engine, it will allow me to do more for the community and I am very happy about the development for the riverine area,” he said.
Lochan surmised that if he is given an allowance to purchase mixed gas for the boat, it will be even better because he will not have to use his own money to do so. “I remain hopeful that things will change for the better, and we can benefit from the resources we need to enhance the work of the CPG within the community,” he said.
Lochan is attached to the Bonasika Police Outpost, which is in dire need of rehabilitation and is also a farmer active in community-based development projects.
Life at Mole Island as a farmer
He has been living at the location for the past 66 years since he moved with his parents from their home village of Ocean View, Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, and they relocated to the High-Level Canal area, which was once a very bushy undeveloped place.
Lochan reported that he watched as his parents toil day and night to make an honest living with farming and everything was done manually in those days.
“I saw them work hard for a long time, and I told myself I must become a farmer too, to live off the land, to earn,” he said.
The Mole Island resident stated that he is one of a few others who occupy the eroding island in the Essequibo River, but it is home for him.
With his personal mantra, “It is more blessed to give than receive,” he doesn’t hesitate to assist people in whatever way possible.
He is very active in all community-based initiatives and often goes beyond the call of duty. He is also a volunteer with the CPG, doing patrols at night and a person you can call on at any given time he is willing to assist.
Lochan grew up as a boy in Bonasika Creek, Essequibo River, and made it his home after a cousin offered him a plot of land. He developed over time and began his life as a small farmer. He then made it his home after he got married and started a family.
The farmer explained that he grew up working alongside his father on their farm, something he adopted as a young man and came from a family of four brothers and three sisters.
However, he migrated to Suriname to work until he got a message that his father was seriously ill and he was needed back home. When Lochan returned to Guyana, he learnt of his father’s death and had to stay to upkeep the farm and take care of his mother and siblings.
Back in those days, Lochan remembered paddling his little boat full of produce to take to the Parika Market to sell and things were much slower, yet simpler than they are today.
He added that when he used to live in the High-Level Canal area, whenever the tide was low, it was difficult to get out; as such, his cousin offered him a piece of land in Bonasika Creek and he relocated there after building a house.
Lochan recalled that life was hard, money was little, and it was frustrating to recover when they lost a crop to wild animals or flooding. He had to go and work with other farmers to earn to re-start planting traditional crops to sustain his family.
He reported that there has been much development in the riverine community over the years. Thanks to the current administration, a lot was done to boost drainage and irrigation since they depend heavily on farming as their only source of income.
Lochan is very pleased because Bonasika Creek is a major food-producing community. To sustain their farms and livelihoods, the community’s drainage and irrigation are being boosted significantly.
