Bush Lot, Bath Settlement, and Hopetown along the West Coast of Berbice (WCB) in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) are being positioned for sweeping physical and economic transformation under the Government’s Model Village Initiative.
These plans encompass improved roads and drainage, safer pedestrian spaces, upgraded bridges and utilities, recreational facilities, landscaping and other infrastructure intended to change both the appearance of the communities and the quality of life of residents.
But President Dr Irfaan Ali says the ambition goes considerably further than rebuilding physical infrastructure. Addressing residents during consultations on the initiative, Ali said the Government wants communities across the country to experience the level of transformation increasingly visible in the capital and other major development areas.
He described the initiative as part of a broader journey towards building “stronger communities, more resilient and sustainable communities”, while giving citizens, regardless of where they live, an opportunity to benefit from the country’s transformation.
The plans being developed for Bush Lot, Bath Settlement and Hopetown form part of the Government’s wider Model Village Initiative, under which communities are being examined not merely in terms of their immediate infrastructure deficiencies but as places where people should be able to live, work, raise families and pursue new economic opportunities.
More than roads and drains
The president said creating a modern village requires consideration of its economy and how that community can be integrated into emerging economic opportunities. “We have to look at not only the creation of the modern village but also how the modern village is integrated into modern economies and modern opportunities,” he said.
Pointing to agricultural production in Region Five, the President raised the possibility of moving beyond the sale of primary produce into processing and other value-added activities.
He spoke, for example, about shallot and pepper production and the potential to dehydrate seasonings, package them for export and extend their shelf life – creating greater value from what farmers already produce. Shallot production is particularly associated with the Bath Settlement area.
Ali also pointed to opportunities that could become available through the proposed Guyana Development Bank, saying officials would return to communities to discuss how financing could be leveraged for community-orientated projects and enterprises.
“Those are the things that a modern village speaks to indirectly,” he said. “Because a modern village and what we want to achieve are villages that are sustainable, resilient, villages that are empowering, villages that you want to live in, villages in which there is peace, harmony and dignity.”
That economic integration, the President suggested, must be accompanied by better planning within communities.
A different look and feel
The physical plans presented to residents provide a glimpse of what that transformation could mean on the ground.
Across the initiative, attention is being placed on road rehabilitation, concrete drainage, bridges, pedestrian access, street lighting, utility infrastructure, road safety, landscaping, recreational and green spaces and beautification.
Conceptual designs presented during the consultations depict an environment markedly different from the traditional village streetscape, landscaped parapets, covered concrete drains, defined pedestrian areas, improved road shoulders, organised parking where space permits, trees and flowering plants, modern lighting and upgraded bridges.
The plans also take account of utility infrastructure, with Guyana Power and Light and the Guyana Water Incorporated expected to coordinate necessary works before major construction begins, avoiding situations in which newly completed infrastructure has to be broken to facilitate utility works.
Ali said changing communities and changing lifestyles also demand different public infrastructure.
People are building larger homes and consuming more electricity, and communities themselves are expanding, he observed, making facilities such as properly positioned utility poles and fire hydrants increasingly important.
Bath Settlement
At Bath Settlement, the proposed transformation covers a substantial community footprint, with plans addressing the road and drainage networks alongside public safety, recreational and other community infrastructure.
The project area is approximately 446 acres and encompasses 54 streets, with some 21.425 kilometres (km) of roads and approximately 42.85km of drains identified within the area.
Plans presented for the community include 55 fire hydrants, bridge and drainage interventions, public and recreational spaces, beautification and other supporting infrastructure.
The designs envision not only rehabilitated streets but also an integrated community environment in which drainage, pedestrian movement, public spaces and landscaping are developed together.
The proposed works are also expected to be sequenced, with utility coordination and preparatory works preceding drainage and access works, pedestrian infrastructure, road improvements and greening.
For an agricultural community such as Bath Settlement, the physical transformation is intended to sit alongside the economic opportunities Ali outlined, including moving local agricultural production further along the value chain.
Bush Lot mapped for extensive works
At Bush Lot, Education Minister Sonia Parag walked residents through detailed plans showing how individual streets and public spaces could change.
The community covers approximately 391 acres and has 49 roads, with a combined length of 16,205 metres (m). More than 300 households are located there.
The proposed interventions include six roads requiring work and approximately 14,854m of concrete drain construction.
Plans also provide for some 1960m of walkways and 3407m of hard shoulders, along with five culverts, assessment and intervention involving 100 utility poles, the planting of 590 trees, 12 fire hydrants and upgrades involving 11 bridges.
Also proposed are community signs, garbage bins and hundreds of streetlights. Parag said the infrastructure is intended to address practical, everyday concerns for residents.
The concept designs show how different types of streets could be treated according to the space available.
Hopetown part of transformation
Hopetown, too, forms an integral part of the Region Five Model Village programme, with its development being approached within the same broader framework of improved infrastructure, safer and more functional public spaces and stronger community development.
The community is not being treated as an appendage to the works at Bath Settlement or Bush Lot but as one of the three Region Five villages around which the initiative’s broader objectives are being pursued.
The final shape of the interventions will also be influenced by the consultation process, through which residents are being asked to identify the needs and priorities particular to their own communities.
Ali stressed that the plans should not simply be handed down to residents.
“That is why we want the community, this consultation; we want the community to be involved in the decision-making,” he said.
Residents may identify different priorities, he noted, including land that could potentially be developed for agro-processing or other community economic ventures. Those ideas, he said, can be integrated into individual community development plans.
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