Region one RDC seeks to address issues affecting Matthew’s Ridge

Aug 17, 2017 News

The view from behind the police station: A police officer sleeps in a room immediately behind this wall

The Regional Democratic Council of Region One, Barima-Waini will be working to address a number of issues within the Matthew’s Ridge community. This is according to Regional Chairman, Brentnol Ashley.

Two Sundays ago, this highlighted serious issues that are plaguing the Matthew’s Ridge/Pakera District Hospital, the Matthew’s Ridge Primary School and the Matthew’s Ridge Police Station.

The regional chairman said yesterday that although the police station comes under the direct responsibility of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), his RDC has been making strong representation for the past two years to ‘F’ Division Commander Ravindranauth Budhram.

He added that the Matthew’s Ridge Police Station is not the only police station found within the region that is in a dilapidated state. He said that the RDC, through its Regional Intelligence Committee, aired the RDC’s concerns and sought to have the GPF ‘F’ Division address the matter.

“To date, only some of those areas would have been looked at, such as Morawhanna (police station) which I would have seen being advertised to be rehabilitated. So we will not stop as it relates to making representation on behalf of the police and not only the police stations but the living conditions of police across the region. It is a major concern to us. So we will continue to make the representation as it relates to that.”

Regarding the Matthew’s Ridge Primary School, Ashley said that the RDC is projecting in its 2018 budget for work to be done to expand the building. This is to accommodate the secondary department that was established about two years ago.

Meanwhile, the regional chairman explained that resources have been put aside to cater for the secondary department to be housed at an old post office building. He said that the building has been around for some time and it will be rehabilitated into a school-like environment for the children at Matthew’s Ridge.

“I personally, as Regional Chairman, would have taken an interest to look into the issue because I would have visited and would have seen the condition under which both teachers and students at Matthew’s Ridge Primary School, Secondary Department would have had to work under, and so the RDC would not have left the issue unattended. So we’re looking at that right now to deal with the issue.”

Meanwhile, he said that his RDC is committed to addressing the issues affecting the hospital. Ashley said that a team headed into the community yesterday. He said that not only will the RDC be assessing the issues that were mentioned at the Matthew’s Ridge community level, but also the issue of the internal roads in the community.

“So we are going to work collaboratively with the Neighbourhood Democratic Council and the various ministries like the Ministry of Communities to ensure that we look at issues affecting Matthew’s Ridge as it relates to infrastructure.

We will not deny the fact that for some time those facilities were not looked at, but this Regional Democratic Council currently is looking at addressing these issues that the residents would have raised and those that we would have assessed for ourselves.”

The Matthew’s Ridge hospital is the central health facility in a community where the majority of resident are involved in mining and other stressful jobs. This translates to a majority of patients visiting the hospital suffering from physical injuries such as broken bones, dislocated and fractured limbs.

However, making matters worse is that the institution does not have an X-Ray department. Patients therefore have to be flown out of Matthew’s Ridge at a cost of approximately $20,000. Further, the malaria department at the hospital is also struggling. There is also no laboratory at the institution to conduct simple blood tests.

It was reported that the only positive of the institution is that it is not short of medication. Regarding the police station, ranks stationed at the location have to use the very limited space within the station building as living quarters. It was reported that there were two building that were dedicated living quarters but have since fell and were never rebuilt.