Region Five making fervent strides to sustain development – Regional Chairman

Apr 01, 2014 News

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With a hands-on approach and a desire for continued development, Region Five’s Regional Chairman, Bindrabhan Bisnauth, together with other officials charged with managing the Region, are prepared to take on the challenges of 2014 and make them into very noticeable victories by year end.

This aspiration, which is designed to build on the achievements of the past years, will see fervent efforts being directed to every developmental sphere of the Region.
Key Focus
Bisnauth, during a recent interview with this publication, disclosed that one of the priority areas for the Region is education, a sector that has been prioritised on a national scale given the $32.3 billion allocated to it in the 2014 National Budget.
And it is the hope of the Regional Chairman that after the budget debates would have ended that “good sense will prevail with regards to the budgetary allocations.” Once passed, Bisnauth is confident that sufficient funds will be available to execute a number of rehabilitative works to a number of educational facilities in the Region.
Speaking to the evolution of education in Region Five, he recounted how it was only last year the Region was for the first time afforded ‘A’ list schools in recognition of the quality performances they were producing. Bisnauth disclosed that ahead of this undertaking “most of our better students had to be traversing either to Region Four or Region Six.”
Moreover, he expressed appreciation for the move by Government to upgrade both the Bygeval and Rosignol Secondary Schools to ‘’ lists, which are situated at the two extremes of the Region. Region Five spans the distance east of the Mahaica Bridge and west of the Berbice River.
The Region is home to 31 nursery, 30 primary and 10 secondary schools.
While Guyana as a whole has been able to ensure that at least 85 per cent of nursery aged children are in school and universal primary education has been attained, it is still working towards achieving secondary education.
In alluding to the vision of Government to achieve universal secondary education this year, Bisnauth disclosed that Region Five in its own quest to aid this objective recently launched two additional secondary schools – Woodley Park and Novar. These educational institutions were previously primary tops which accommodated students after they would have completed their primary education.
With the Region’s budgetary allocation for education, Bisnauth is confident that funds will be thrust into expansion and rehabilitative works intended to ensure that the recently elevated schools have in place the relevant facilities for the properly delivery of secondary education.
Health Care
The Region has also been channelling significant resources into its delivery of health care in the quest to prevent the continuance of a number of challenges.  And one of the primary challenges Bisnauth said, has been that of electricity supply at one of its main health facilities – the Fort Wellington Hospital.  “We have always had difficulties at the Fort Wellington Hospital in terms of electricity supply and in our 2014 budget we have budgeted to complete re-wiring works to ensure that we have free and genuine flow of current to the hospital’s equipment…the health equipment are very sensitive and we cannot allow fluctuation of current,” Bisnauth informed.
Although unable to speak to the sum slated to be expended towards health care, the Regional Chairman did disclose that substantial funds will also be utilised to purchase a new x-ray machine for the Mahaicony Diagnostic Hospital. This is particularly important, Bisnauth noted, since the machine currently in use has been malfunctioning for some time now and “it doesn’t seem that we will be able to refurbish it, so we are buying one.”
Additional monies will go towards the installation of air conditioning units at a number of health centres in the Region. There are 15 operational health centres in the Region and while most of them have already been air conditioned, Bisnauth said those remaining will be addressed this year.
This move is important, the Regional Chairman said, since it will help to safeguard stored pharmaceuticals. “You have to have the right conditions, the right temperature,” said Bisnauth for the storage of pharmaceuticals.
Economic strength
And even as efforts are being directed towards all-round improvement, Bisnauth assertively informed that the Region has long been leaning on agriculture as its main economic source. In fact, he disclosed that the Region can today boast of being the largest producer of rice in the country. However, he intimated that although yields continue to be laudable, the income in this regard leaves much to be desired. “Right now the industry is taking a little beating…the markets are there but the pricing is the problem,” informed Bisnauth.
Although there are existing challenges being faced in the rice industry, he disclosed that the Region has also been competing with other Regions in terms of its production of cash-crop and even aquaculture which is now becoming a tradition.  “We are self-sufficient in terms of food production; we have a sizeable population that does farming, rice, cattle (rearing), cash crops,” disclosed Bisnauth, who also related that a major source of income for many residents is the provision of labour at various business entities.
The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has also been benefiting from the services of many in the Region too, Bisnauth said. It is for this reason; he divulged that “we will be supporting all initiatives Government is taking to ensure that GuySuCo keeps going.”
In fact, the Regional Chairman disclosed that the sustainability of the entire Region is premised on the caring approach that has over the years become a norm. “We go out every day; we visit some community or the other every day…once somebody calls my office, the Deputy Regional Office or Vice Chairman’s offices we go out and have one on one interaction with individuals and groups and I think that has been the driving force in this Region,” Bisnauth intimated.
It was such involvement in the communities, the Regional Chairman noted, that were instrumental in devising a strategy to cater to the sustainability of the Region’s thoroughfares. “We have always had a big problem with roads, not only in Region Five but across the country…these roads are designed just for a limited amount of traffic but as usual our residents misuse them,” observed Bisnauth. As such he noted that in its 2014 budget, allocations have been made for the rehabilitation of the communities’ roads with some added features. These, according to him, will include engineers designing roads complete with barriers, weight limit signs and even the strategic placement of speed humps, particularly in school zones.

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