The Guyana Government will be roping in young adults from the Agricola community, Greater Georgetown, to get training so that they can benefit from employment opportunities in the country’s burgeoning construction sector.
This was indicated by President Dr Irfaan Ali during an impromptu visit to the community on Sunday morning during which he engaged residents on how they can partner with Government to advance the development of Agricola.
Among the issues addressed are drainage, infrastructure, sports facilities, and youth empowerment and employment.
President Ali declared that his administration wants to see young people playing an active role and be integrally involved in the plans to improve and develop their community.
“[This will] create more ownership. It is your community; you’ll want to see [the works] done better.”
Over the past several months, the Head of State has been talking about the need for more workers in the construction sector which has taken off rapidly in the last couple of years.
To this end, the President urge the youths in Agricola – as he had done in other communities across the country – to sign up to be trained under government’s construction programme after which they will be given jobs.
“We also want to work on finding persons who want to work in construction because this is a sector that would require a number of workers and we want to be able to provide the training for it and to help you with the training so you could become skilled workers and we can get you employed in the massive housing development that is taking place in our country,” he informed residents.
Consequently, Ali tasked Ministers Charles Ramson Jr. and Nigel Dharamlall to follow-up on ensuring that persons from Agricola are engaged and trained.
However, one resident raised concerns that often promises are made of initiatives to be undertaken but are not fulfilled. He also indicated the community’s interest in participating the block-making programme that has been implemented in some areas across the country.
In response, President Ali assured the Agricola residents that immediate actions will be taken on the interventions he made on Sunday and further urge the community to hold government accountable in fulfilling its commitments.
To ensure this happens, he identified two elderly residents from community to work directly with the Ministers to address issues in the community.
One such matter is the deplorable state of the roads in Agricola. The President asked that the team get together and identify the priority roads to be done, explaining that not everything can be fixed immediately.
“I want the group to identify the priorities so we will start with those and try to do a few of them this year. As far as possible, in the small streets, we are now moving to concrete streets so we can hire people from the community. We can give small contracts to the community to do the small concrete streets,” Ali noted.
Another priority issue in the community that was addressed by the Head of State is drainage. He committed that by the end of next week, government will engagement a group of residents from the community to do some of the work.
“[We’re going to] hire them to clean the internal drainage, to look at all the culverts and so on.”
With regards to the major drainage issue, that is, two main drainage canals that are being blocked by major businesses and private residents, the president instructed Minister Dharamlall to return with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to have the two canals excavated and cleaned. They will also look at the koker in the area to make it operational.
According to Ali, these works will start this week. He also addressed concerns by residents of the poor water quality, which they complain is filled with rust.
President Ali explained that this could be caused by the aged well in the area, which also produce water with a high-iron content. Nevertheless, he said the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) will look into the issue.
“They’re gonna come in and they’re going to flush the system… However, we are investing in a number of projects now that will see you getting treated water in another two to two and a half years or less… But I’m going to ask [GWI] to continuously monitor the system and to flush as far as possible,” he assured.
The Guyanese Leader also told residents that Minister Charles will be working with the community to enhance existing sporting infrastructure in the community. He said the focus will first be on improving the community-owned facility so that works can be done without any hindrance and then later on, they will explore acquiring additional vacant lands in Agricola for more recreational facilities.
President Ali said his visit is reflective of his Government’s commitment to engage directly with citizens to ensure they play a critical role in the development of their communities.
“We are here to work with you, to engage with you, to support you because you are part of the transformation that we want to see in Guyana. As we talk about all the major projects that we’re doing, it is also important that at the community level, we implement initiatives that will help to transform the community themselves also.”
“We have to create a positive environment. The only way we’re going to advance communities and create new ways of doing things is if we’re able to generate positivity; if we’re able to create a positive environment in which we live, in which we support each other and an understanding that we are in this altogether as one Guyanese community,” the Head of State added.
