By Bebi Oosman
THE farming community of Black Bush Polder continues to experience significant growth and development, greatly enhancing the livelihoods of its residents and fostering economic progress under the PPP/C government.
With targeted investments in infrastructure and agriculture, the community is seeing improvements and these efforts are creating new opportunities for residents, strengthening agricultural productivity, and contributing to sustainable growth in the region.
Regional Vice Chairman, Zamal Hussain, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Chronicle, pointed out that there are a number of projects currently underway in Black Bush Polder.
“Let me say that the first thing we doing in Black Bush Polder is that last year the Minister of Agriculture has opened a new pump for the Lesbeholden area that is serving close to about 1,000 farmers in the Black Bush Polder, that is for drainage because drainage was a keep issue.”

According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority last year also allocated two small excavators “to do all the desilting of the internal drains in Black Bush Polder that is from Yakusari right on to the Lesbeholden, they divided it into two where one machine will work in two communities and the other will be working in the two other communities.”
Hussain explained that Minister Zulfikar Mustapha also instructed that the machines be stationed at the locations to continuously carry out works on the drainage within the housing areas to the benefit of residents.
“Also, there was a number of tubing that were installed at the various culverts to improve the drainage at the same time because the government spent close to couple million of dollars to change between 60 to 80 tubings in the Black Bush area, all the polders.”
He then pointed to the building of the Hope-like canals within the area which is expected to massively improve drainage and reduce the threat of flooding within the region’s farming communities in the Upper Corentyne Area.
“That is a key project that will help the entire Black Bush Polder because the last flooding we had was a major disaster for Black Bush and that project will help tremendously in the rice industry because Black Bush is mostly rice and cattle so this particular Hope-like canal project will be a big impact for Black Bush Polder.”
Turning to infrastructure, Hussain noted that works are continuing on the main access road as well as the streets within the various communities in Black Bush Polder. “A lot of these roads children used to walk with long boots with two, three feet of mud coming out of the schools and so.”
With government spending close to $4 billion for the rehabilitation of roads in the area, Hussain stated, “This will be about 60 roads in Black Bush Polder completed last year in 2024” drastically improving the networks and access for residents and children.
However, he then gave some assurance that this year “we will be looking at the remaining set to ensure that we can work to complete it within Black Bush Polder.”
He continued, “This project is across the entire Black Bush Polder, that is the internal streets and there is also major work being done on the public road by different contractors, we doing different sections of the Black Bush main road that is from Lesbeholden straight unto to Yakusari, the internal main road of the polder that is ongoing presently.”
The Vice Chairman stressed, “We are looking forward to having the entire road completed in this new year, in 2025.”

Regarding the community grounds in the area, Hussain mentioned that a range of development works have been carried out to improve these spaces which aim to enhance the quality of public areas, providing residents with better facilities for social and recreational activities.
“We do the fencing of these grounds, the playgrounds, we also include the Zambia playground where we are doing some rehabilitation work for the pavilion, landfilling, washroom facilities, etc, we doing all of these in all four polders and also we doing the lighting, contract is being awarded for all the grounds in Black Bush so very shortly you will see the project completed.”
Adding that the government continues to work to improve Black Bush Polder – a community which was heavily neglected by the previous administration – Hussain said, “we have done a lot and this year we will do more, in fact this year, we will look to complete the roads, we will look to enhance more drainage, we help and will continue to help a lot of farmers in terms of personal private work in terms of upgrading their farmlands so that they can plant more acreage of rice.”
At the Kokerite Savannah, Hussain who meets with residents throughout the region on the ground daily, said, “We are doing a number of works there to help the cattle farmers in Kokerite Savannah and the other areas so this year will be very exciting in terms of Black Bush Polder.”
The Regional Vice Chairman stressed that since 2020 to now, “coming into the polder with the Minister of Agriculture in 2020, there were tons of problems and if you go now on the ground and reach with the residents they are satisfied with a number of work that is happening.”
Nevertheless, Hussain emphasised that efforts will persist in improving the livelihoods of the residents, with a continued focus on development and enhancing the general quality of life in the community.