A major outcome of BUILDING EXPO ’22 must be interest in suitable housing development

Jul 19, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Government’s decision to bring back the Annual International Building Expo is to be welcomed. The initiative was first launched by the PPP/C administration in 2010. The event, usually held over three days drew huge crowds.
Some digging revealed a pithy mention in a 1961 journal that in 1959 a ‘Food, Health and Home Week’ exposition was held at Huist t’Dieren on the Essequibo Coast while a ‘Better Home Week’ exposition was held at Savannah Park at New Amsterdam, Berbice. While these exhibitions did not directly address building issues per se, their modest efforts were perhaps, the harbingers of bigger events that were to come 51 years later.

A revolution in the country’s housing sector took place somewhere around late 1950’s. Four types of prefabricated houses, constructed with particle board for sides and walls, and imported corrugated asbestos sheets used for roofing appeared on the local market.
Research shows that the particle board manufacturing plant, utilised local soft and hard woods. The soft wood product was suitable for partitioning as well as ceiling and other types of interior work, while the particle board, made from hard wood proved suitable for exterior work in buildings. Reports show that houses built using the two types of building materials did not show any signs of deterioration (Colonial Report of BG 1961).

The revolution in the housing sector was further advanced following the election to office of the Jagan government in 1957. Steps were initiated to provide housing for various income groups. ‘For the lower income group in both urban and rural areas, Self-help and Extra-Nuclear Housing Schemes, as well as a Low Cost Housing Programme were launched. The programme originally targeted 4,500 houses but was subsequently reduced to 3,218 houses due to the scarcity of money for loans on mortgage. The programme was completed in 1959, however, a new housing programme was launched following the re-election of the PPP in August 1961 when lots were allocated for houses at La Penitence and Ruimveldt. When completed, the houses were advertised for sale.’ (ibid. 1961).

As regards the middle-income group, ‘Lands were allocated for the construction of houses at new suburban areas including Prashad Nagar, New Haven, Bel Air Springs, Bel Air Park and Blygezight.’ The Jagan Government ‘provided potable water and the basic infrastructure for the new residential areas. Continuing its Rural and Urban Housing Programme, government awarded contracts for constructing 188 houses. Subsequently, another contract was awarded for construction of an additional 62 houses. At the same time, Self¬-Help Schemes helped build 144 Low-Cost Houses’ (Ibid. 1961).
According to Cheddi Jagan’s, ‘The West on Trial’: ‘Housing was expanded in both town and country, and the logies in the sugar estates were virtually eliminated. The Rent-Restriction Ordinance, formerly confined to the urban areas, was extended to the whole county to protect those who were tenants or those who rented land for house-building.’

Continuity implies the objective and necessary connection between the old and the new in the process of development where a higher form of social organisation replaces an earlier one. This was exemplified, for example, in Guyana’s housing sector. It is in this historical context, that building expos launched by the PPP/C from 2010 onwards should be viewed.
Building expos can be treasure troves for architects, engineers, contractors, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, home hunters and renovators, paint companies, security services, real estate agents, insurance companies, bankers, environmentalists, landscapers, tenants and landlords even speculators.

Building Expos also provide product and production awareness; environmentally friendly architectural designs; new and modernistic building concepts such as ‘Smart Price Housing,’ ‘Green Building;’ use of solar panels; protective measures against floods and salt air; creative concepts including space utilisation and internal cooling; avante-garde aesthetic techniques and innovative designs; protective equipment and alarm systems against fires and burglary; building materials; availability of private and public sector concessional financing; as well as presentation of some general and specific ideas for shaping the future of the building industry in countries like Guyana with economies in transition.
The objectives of Guyana’s building expos cannot be divorced nor viewed in isolation from government’s National Development Strategy, its Low Carbon Development Strategy nor its Poverty Reduction Strategy. It is within the context of these strategies that the Ministry of Housing and Water and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) are called upon to roll out realisable housing and building development plans.

This brings me to application of the relevant laws for the development of new building areas in general, but more specifically for individual houses and housing schemes, squatting regularisation, and the re¬development of once thriving, but now depressed residential and business communities.
During the PPP/C’s 1992-2015 tenure in government, building construction in the urban and rural areas moved at a rapid pace. This was demonstrated in the construction of public and institutional buildings, residential buildings, housing schemes, commercial buildings, industrial estates, petroleum-filling stations, sports facilities, civic centres, schools, and public open spaces.
Access roads to and arterial roads connecting housing schemes to major highways for the even distribution of traffic, the clearance and redevelopment of depressed areas as well the regularisation of squatter settlements and regular cleaning drainage canals were given top priority.

Intersections of main traffic routes have been improved with the introduction of round-abouts.
In view of the rapidly changing socio-economic conditions and the upswing in real estate trends in Guyana, there is an urgent need to avoid social alienation within the housing sector as evidenced in the rapid growth of posh, gated communities housing a nouveau riche gentry. To avoid any social imbalances, the Central Housing and Planning Authority must give equal, if not greater priority to the lower and medium level income social strata who constitute the bulk of the population.

Since affordability is critical for securing a plot of land for building a house, land allocation for housing is a matter of public interest. The nouveau riche can afford to purchase the more expensive and better lands to build their mansions, but those belonging to the lower and middle income categories would be hard pressed to do so. In the circumstances, government’s ‘Home Construction Assistance Facility’ (HCAF) where land is used as equity is to be welcomed. However, while the facility is a step in the right direction, the point is, without legal ownership of a house lot, the prospective applicant would not qualify to benefit from any of the three categories of the HCAF. Private sector initiatives such as GBTI’s ‘Drive Home’ (DH) promotion can be helpful for prospective home owners, and to address mortgage financing and home furnishings.

Whatever the initiative, be it government’s HCAF or the GBTI’s DH promotion, legal ownership of a house lot remains one of the biggest twin hurdle. To address the challenge, we are told that ‘government is actively pursuing new lands to satisfy the demand for house lots.’
In the circumstances, we were told that ‘government has set itself the target to achieve its goal to provide 50,000 houses on or before 2025’ (GC 15.6.’22). And in the case of Bartica, ‘government has earmarked 120 acres to build approximately 500 houses (GC 16.5.’22).

Last year, it was reported that government was well on course to achieving its target and even surpassing its target of 10,000 house lots under its ‘Dream Realised’ housing drive (GC 9.12.’21). How many have had their dreams realised, we do not know. It is also reported that over 813 acres of land was handed over to CH&PA by GuySuCo for housing development.
According to the Bank of Guyana report for the first quarter of 2022, major disbursements’ were made particularly in the housing and construction sectors, which represented 41.9 percent and 32.9 percent of total capital expenditure, respectively for the period under review.

A major outcome of the impending International Building Expo must be the interest paid by government’s public sector investment programme and private sector investors in land for suitable housing development in the light of government’s plan to open up new roads leading to the interior of the country.
Among such locations could be along the Linden to Lethem Road; the Parika to Makouria Road; and somewhere at the Soesdyke to Linden Highway where the much anticipated 500-acre new city, branded ‘Silica City’ intended to be ‘Guyana’s industrial future’ is planned to be established. The last time we heard about this was in 2013 at the fourth International Building and Construction Exposition.

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee

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