Road and drainage problems in Hague/Blankenburg

Dear Editor, l am a senior citizen and I accomplished the golden age of 80 years not so long ago. I have lived at Lot 43, Duke Street, Hague Front on the West Coast of Demerara for all the years of my life. I am the bona fide owner of Lot 43, that is within the Hague/Blankenburg Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) which is responsible for the villagers’ general welfare and is the local government organ.

In a democracy, like ours, this is very great responsibility. But it appears as though leadership and responsibility, have suddenly disappeared. The street where I live has been in a deplorable condition for a number of years and the council has done nothing to remedy the situation. No attempt is being made by the said council to bring any relief though material has been stockpiled for such purposes. This is shameless discrimination in its full glory. Our street must be repaired in the shortest possible time, if not we shall all converge on the NDC office and demand same. We intend to take every conceivable action for a favourable end result.

I must encourage councillors to stop silly arguments at council meetings and start putting plans and programmes in place to serve the people’s needs or be prepared to be removed at our upcoming polls! Many statutory council meetings were prematurely called to an end because of confrontations among some council members. If commonsense cannot prevail how then will consensus be realized? This is default in totality because the office you hold calls for mutually agreeable decisions, and this is what aggressively warring factions have failed to put into practice.

Resign and let more competent people serve in meaningful ways. I have to remind all councillors that I always honour my requisite rates and taxes obligations.

We have another disturbing situation with our inter lot drainage systems. Our main drains have not been cleaned for a long time now and we are experiencing a foul smell emanating from these drains, which is unhygienic at all times. I write this letter so that the honourable Local Government Minister may know of our plight because, if we do not highlight our problems and the cause of such, he probably will never know of our situation and its cause. As we are on the issue of public interest and discontent. Let me formally invite the honourable Local Government Minister, to visit Hague/Blankenburg NDC and then honestly tell us what you see. We want no other person, than the minister himself. If this comes to reality, we will all feel honoured in every sense.

I should let it be known, that all the residential house lots south of the public road from east to extreme west are very low-lying lands and are easily flooded with little rainfall and it will remain soggy for long periods, all because of very poor drainage systems. The main drainage canal is at the back of these homesteads; but it is blocked up with very thick dead stuff and vegetation. This particular drainage system needs immediate cleaning. Our NDC chairman was able to secure the service of a mini excavator from the region but before the work got started, a very bold political activist came and ordered it to go elsewhere. Yours faithfully,

Ganga (Bobby) Persaud