FOR PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY
Community development …one of PPP/C Gov’t’s many trademarks
A GINA feature
ACTIVITIES geared at enhancing the status of any community, must be of a certain type and executed with certain specifics in mind. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) Administration is not in any ‘knee-jerk’ approach as it implements long-term plans and thinks in a holistic manner, since a society is about the overall development of its people. Born and bred in the East Coast Demerara village of Buxton, Presidential Adviser on Community Development, Odinga Lumumba, is well qualified to make a contrast of ‘what it used to be’ as against what currently obtains in terms of community development. “When we (PPP/C) came to power, there was the absence of many social activities in Buxton and the infrastructure was not well done … there was the absence of modern infrastructure, like the roads were not kept, and the water system was almost nil, (and) people had to travel long distances for water (and), if they did not travel long distances for this water, only at certain periods of the day or night, they would get access to water (as) either it was the lack of power or the transmission system that was
Middle income homes in Amelia’s Ward, Region 10 when they were under construction
dysfunctional.”
Inherent in this comparison are a number of philosophical underpinnings where the PPP/C is concerned in relation to nation building.
Holistic approach
Education has enjoyed an unprecedented boom in the recent past, both in investments and the concomitant results. Mr. Lumumba recalled the school system, where Buxton was very problematic, as “the schools were old and rundown, there was lack of books in the schools, and the health system was non-functional.” He also alluded to the fact that there was no community centre and the playground was in disarray.
According to him, the PPP/C Government had to go about fixing all of these things, and now, the advisor noted, people are seeing a complete change. Mention was made of the Tipperary Hall, constructed at a cost of over $50M, so now people can have public meetings, dances, lessons, classes and musical activities. He mentioned the water system, where “today people can have water in Buxton, not only in the yard, but also in the actual home.” He stated that “the playground is now functional, the fence is up and the residents have a basketball court, with one or two small pavilions.” His enumeration went on to include the health centre, which is very functional; visits are now being made by doctors and a nurse permanently placed to offer services.
The Presidential Adviser did not limit himself to Buxton; he added Linden as another example of the holistic approach of the PPP/C to community development. Linden, he recalled, had various similarities: the road system was in disarray; the water was brown; and there was no proper housing. However all of this is history. It was because the Government went about correcting those situations. The PPP/C distributed thousands of house lots in Linden, but before it did so, it ensured that the social climate was present so that Lindeners were able “to rebuild, reconstruct or rehabilitate or construct brand new houses, particularly in Amelia’s Ward. (Now) the water system … we have put in a purification plant in Linden, we have built a new hospital in Wismar, new schools and so all those things come and we have built several basket ball courts. You cannot deal with the enhancement of the community, and don’t deal with youths in sports and culture, so we have done that in most communities.”
Housing
Neatly uniformed students of the Potarinau Primary school
Speaking to the issue of housing, he recalled the overt absence of any proper distribution for housing under the People’s National Congress regime, and the state of the economy, and how the interest rate was remarkably high—over 30 percent. “One of the biggest things for us in community development was developing the community in the sense of repairing and fixing the housing stock, and if you go from community to community today, whether it be Essequibo or East Coast, Berbice or the East Bank, you will
