President Ali engages Charity squatters, commits to regularising area 

His Excellency, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Tuesday assured residents illegally occupying lands in Charity, Region Two, that the government will commence the regularisation of the area by year-end.

President Ali was at the time visiting flood-affected areas in Charity and surrounding areas along the Essequibo Coast.

During his visit, the president met with several residents where he addressed issues of infrastructure development, flooding mitigation, and regularisation of the area.

The area is made up of two squatter settlements. President Ali explained that residents in the ‘Board Walk’, will be issued their land ownership shortly.

“For that section, what we will do is we are going to work on completing their titles…the minister will come here tomorrow and they will have a plan for me by tomorrow,” he assured the residents.

Regarding the other section, President Ali explained that the process will take longer since the structures there were erected in an ad-hoc manner, posing difficulties in establishing a road network and other critical infrastructure.

“One of the difficulties with squatter settlements is the way people squat, it is not organised, in a planned way… So, this will create difficulty with regularisation,” he explained.

The head of state urged the residents to work along with the government as they seek a solution to the longstanding issue.

“Having said that, once there is a will in the community and the entire community wants the area to be regularised and they are willing to make the necessary changes, then we can find a way.

“It may require people taking in their fences, people giving up pieces of their land for roadways; now that is what is going to be critically needed for the regularisation process to be completed…it can be done, but it calls for a lot of cooperation,” he added.

As it relates to flooding in the area, the president noted that immediate actions were taken to deploy additional pumps to drain the water off the land.

Already, plans are in place to construct a new pump station to the tune of $700 million, the president said.