Unprecedented development for hinterland regions
― international airport for Lethem
― international highway from Lethem to Georgetown
DPI, Guyana, Sunday, November 24, 2019
As the Government of Guyana continues to reach out to every single Guyanese across this nation, community engagements were held across Region 9, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo.
One such meeting was conducted by Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Hon. Jaipaul Sharma in the village of Parabara. Minister Sharma wasted no time in letting the residents know that road maintenance was already on the agenda for the village.
“In September of 2019, an agreement was reached for the Ministry of Natural Resources to maintain the road from Deep South to Parabara. That project will be started shortly. This is only the beginning of the things we’re going to do for Parabara.”
This was welcome news for all the residents. As it turns out, one of the major issues faced is traversing from the village to Lethem and other areas as the road can sometimes be inaccessible. As the meeting pressed on, villagers raised issues around having more teachers station in the community, as well as the acquisition of teaching aids, completion of the hot meals’ initiative, fencing of the school and most importantly, land titling.
Minister Sharma ensured that these issues would be addressed.
“I’m going to look into the school issue, this information will be passed onto the Minister of Education, so we address that… The hot meal building, I will also look into that, the issue about the fencing of the building, all that information will be forwarded to the Minister of Education.”
He further promised that the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) will deal with the issue of providing a well for the village.
“It is a priority that GWI come in here and deal with that issue, and so I’m going to put that as the first thing on the list.”
Minister Sharma indicated that he will be returning to the village at a later date, and he hopes that upon his return, an area could be identified for a potential airstrip within the environs of Parabara Village. Whilst touching on this topic, it was revealed by the minister that the ultimate goal is to build an international airport in the town of Lethem.
“People from the Caribbean that are coming in this region for tourism, they don’t need to take a plane and land at Ogle or Timehri, and then take a bus or truck or SUV to drive through, they can land right here in region nine and see all that we have to offer.”
Additionally, the road linkage between Georgetown and Lethem will be done via an international standard highway, rivalling those of Brazil. The government has been pushing excessive infrastructural development within the interior and hinterland regions of Guyana. This has since eased the travel into the interior regions of Guyana and has led to excessive development of not only tourism but agriculture and business.