Linden residents detail woes, identify poor roads, drainage

May 25, 2010 News

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President Bharrat Jagdeo and a team of Ministers and other Government officials, on Saturday visited various wards and communities in and around Linden, and later held an interactive meeting at the Watooka Complex, where residents were given the opportunity to ventilate and discuss various issues and problems affecting them.
The President’s visit was welcomed by all. Many persons took the opportunity to congratulate him on his attainment of ‘Champion of the Earth.’
However, even more people took the opportunity to speak out on issues affecting them. Many of these issues had to do with problems dealing with the land allocation process, including the exorbitant prices being asked for land in the Fairs Rust/ Noitghdacht communities.
People also vented their displeasure with the state of many roads in Linden, especially those roads that were recently rehabilitated and are already in a state of disrepair.
Under the roads debacle, the stretch from Ituni to Kwakwani, took the ‘cake’ as a Kwakwani resident claimed that commuting between these two communities, takes three hours because of the deplorable condition of the road, as monies are being spent over and over to rehabilitate the road, but the people are not getting value for money. It was pointed out that a lot of contracts are being awarded to contractors who have neither the experience nor expertise to execute the projects.
A Linden resident alluded to the 2008 subvention received by the Mayor and Town Council, and which to date has still not been spent, even though there are several projects to be looked at.
And two municipal workers complained that retroactive monies were owed to them since 1999. It was also disclosed that the council has not been paying the workers taxes, including NIS. At this juncture there were several calls for the disbanding of the current Interim Management Committee.
The employees were advised by the President to do their computation and to forward the results to him, promising that he would ensure that they get their money.
And a resident from the Green Valley area urged the President and his team to have the community regularised, and put in the necessary infrastructure for street lights and the like.
It was disclosed by a Block 22 resident that whenever it rains, the water ‘comes down’ (flows down) in such torrents, that it is impossible for persons to leave their homes. This situation is exacerbated as the area is lower than the other surrounding communities and there are no proper drainage systems in place.
A Bamia resident complained about the lack of opportunities for out of school youths, and truancy among the school population in that area.
The woman appealed to the President to establish D&I groups in the community to help alleviate the unemployment problem, especially among the young people.
Flooding was another major issue, which seems to affect people all across Region Ten. Some key areas cited though were Rainbow City, Kara Kara, the Valleys and Coomacka. The Coomacka residents were concerned about the Demerara River which has become so silted up in that community, that the beach is slowly approaching the opposite side of the river.
This causes real problems for persons who travel by boat, but more especially those in the logging sector, who opt to transport their logs by river.
Fortunately this was one of the areas recently earmarked for dredging under the NDIA programme to mitigate flooding in Region Ten.
President Jagdeo listened to these and other issues affecting the residents, and made on the spot decisions on one or two, but most persons were advised to form themselves into groups, and sit and discuss their problems with the relevant authorities present. He promised that after the interactive sessions, persons would be assigned to deal with specific issues.
The President made the observation that many persons run away with the idea that they are working because they are doing things, when ‘frankly speaking’ many of the things beings done are a waste of time.
He opined that you know what you are doing when you have output, when performance is measured by output, not the time taken to do the task/tasks.
Expressing surprise when he heard people saying that nothing is done for Region Ten. He alluded to the $250millon Capital Budget that is operated by the RDC and some Ministries such as housing and water.
He spoke about the recently completed Linden Hospital Complex which was built at a cost of just over $2billion. Residents were also reminded that over $ 12 billion was used to subsidise electricity in the community in the last seven years.
In 2010 alone, the subsidy in this sector would amount to $2.2 billion, which is about US$11million. It cost $50 to produce one kilowatt hour electricity, while residents only pay between $5 and $7.
It was further pointed out by the President that Government spends more money in region 10, per capita, when compared to other regions.
“When we spent money at the call centre we had a bad start, but now 111 people are working there. That’s 111 that have got jobs because of a government initiative.”
He also alluded to the LEAP which helped quite a few people, and its successor the Linden Enterprise Network which is presently being geared to do the same.
The 360 workers under the D&I Programme who collectively earn $96 million annually was another huge financial commitment by Government, according to President Jagdeo.
He has promised to return to the community within another couple of weeks to provide some answers and come up with solutions to the various problems, which were ventilated at the meeting.
Residents, meanwhile, have acknowledged that the interactive meeting was a good initiative, and said they are hoping that the outcome would be equally good.
(Enid Joaquin)

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