Congestion at Port Kaituma water front to be addressed

GINA, GUYANA, Monday, September 5, 2016

The Region One Administration is looking to convert an abandoned bond in Central Port Kaituma into a market, to relocate some of the vendors from the congested Port Kaituma water front.

Region One Chairman, Brentnol Ashley said that the regional administration is working to bring order to the overcrowding at the Port Kaituma water front, by relocating some of the vendors, plying their trade in the area.

“We are hoping to between 2016 and early 2017, we can have the organising of the Port Kaituma water front, because, it is congested, and most of the structures that are there are illegal,” Ashley told the Government Information Agency (GINA).

The regional chairman added that many of the vendors in the area are those, that did not, “have the permission to construct, nor do they have the lease for the lands that they want to construct on.”

Ashley explained to GINA that the administration will work with the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) to relocate the vendors, with serious consideration being given to the use of the old abandoned Barama Company bond, and the unused large cassava mills, for the placement of the relocated vendors.

“One of the things is to work with the NDC, and the NDC to work with the people,” Ashley said.  “…we cannot displace people, and we have nowhere to put them, and so in central Port Kaituma, there is a clear brick bond that the Barama company would have built some time ago, that was abandoned. The RDC (Regional Democratic Council) is going to work with the NDC (Neighbourhood Democratic Council) and also the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to see how best we could resuscitate that bond and make it into a market  for the people so they can move  from that area and hence give us the space to make a better plan for the community,” Ashley said.

The NDC has already informed the vendors of the move to bring order to the waterfront.

“I know for a fact that the NDC would have met with the people at the greens market, the stallholders at the bus stop, and they would have started writing letters to various persons informing them (of the relocation). This most likely will be the way forward and to advise them that they would have the time to ensure that they dismantle, and at the same time looking at ways and places that we could correct the situation,” Ashley told GINA.

Due to the congestion of vendors at the water front, the flow of traffic in the area is greatly affected. The area also suffers from flooding, due to clogged drains from the careless disposal of waste from the market or vendors constructing structures over the drains.