President Ali pledges swift action on issues affecting Friendship residents
The community of Friendship along the East Bank Demerara (EBD) benefitted from yet another community engagement led by President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali and officials from various government agencies on Friday afternoon.
At Friendship, the need for proper irrigation for farmlands, employment opportunities, and a community playfield was brought to the attention of the President, who then assured that the government would look into these concerns.
As it relates to agriculture, farmers complained about animals destroying their cassava crops.
“Let me get the Ministry of Agriculture to work with the wildlife department to see what solution we can come up with,” the head of state assured in response to farmers’ complaints.
The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) will assess the drainage challenges over the weekend to come up with a solution.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission will examine land conflicts at Friendship to find a solution to the resident’s woes. Additionally, the Attorney General’s Chambers is instructed to appoint a mediator to resolve a private matter involving the overlapping of land titles.
Due to the Friendship community being a squatter settlement, the water pressure is limited. However, the Chief Executive Officer of Guyana and Water Incorporated (GWI), Shaik Baksh informed residents that a new water treatment plant is being constructed at Caledonia which will improve the level of service that they are now receiving.
“Just be patient for a little while and understand the context of this area. We ran all the pipelines and we tried to facilitate,” Baksh emphasised.
Residents were informed that a new secondary school is being constructed at Prospect, which will ease the overcrowding of classrooms currently being experienced at the Friendship and Diamond Secondary Schools.
These community engagements are part of the government’s commitment to meet with citizens at the grassroots level to ensure that communities are developed according to the priorities listed by the residents.
