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President Irfaan Ali visited Mara in Region 6 yesterday, October 14, 2023. After the meeting, listening to the concerns of a handful of residents, Ali declared, “We are not here to hide any issue or misrepresent any issue. This is what good governance is.” The proof, however, of the effectiveness of the president’s earlier visit was in the many unresolved issues that had been raised and promises to fix them had been made by Guyana’s President.
Ramjagan Singh reminded the president that when he visited on December 17, 2021, he made a “commitment to the people… concerning the title for the land. We fulfilled all the requirements for the land, paid for the surveying fee, everything. I have the documents. To this day, nothing else.”
Another resident said that, in Germania, the issue of silted canals remained unresolved. Another resident joined him to say that a tube that was placed to help irrigation, was not serving that purpose. She, also, complained that they had begged for the area to be cleaned, but the problem remained, and her fruit trees were drying up due to the lack of water. The engineer was publically chastized and dubbed as “lazy”.
It was no different for pensioners who raised, again, the issue of having to travel to New Amsterdam to receive their old age pension. President Ali responded, saying, “Let me tell you honestly, somebody should be fired. We have a policy. We said the pension must be paid in the villages. The officers must get out of their offices and go to the villages, riverine communities, and hinterland and pay the pensioners.”
Mr. “Phillips”, a Platanke resident, stated they have “some water problems. We have a shallow well, a very shallow well, and we have to use a pump to pump the water in, and the water gets contaminated.” President Ali stated he was aware the Mara well had collapsed and the prolonged dry season had made the shallow wells inefficient. “We have to program a new well for the area”, President Ali promised in next year’s budget.
Other issues included transportation that was lacking for schoolchildren who live beyond Lighthouse in New Amsterdam. The road infrastructure as well currently under rehabilitation was brought to the attention of President Ali. “I am dissatisfied with the engineers and the speed at which they’re carrying out this work. There is absolutely no excuse for the speed at which they’re doing the work,” President Ali told residents gathered in the auditorium of a school in the community.
