A number of potential obstacles are confronting the ranks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) as the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) is on the verge of seeing a major transformation.
One of the major challenges is that the Division would have to focus heavily on security, which would ultimately expand the lawmen’s workload.
The Commander of that Division, Senior Superintendent Khali Pareshram, has said that before the year ends, there will be an extension of about six housing schemes between the communities of Strathspey and La Bonne Intention (LBI), ECD.
“This will be…all south of the embankment, going all the way down to the first dam. Those additional housing areas will be challenging for the Force, and we need to cope with it,” he has said.
Pareshram has said that apart from those major developments, the entire landscape around the Ogle and Goodverwagting area would be commercialised, with a number of hotels and oil companies’ offices being built there. The area would also see renovations being done to the Eugene F. Correia International Airport.
“Between that, Goodverwagting to LBI, those additional areas also, we will see in a medium-term, if not this year, sometime next year, according to our colleagues from the CH&PA, that those areas are also identified for housing…the Enmore area will be an industrial area,” he explained.
With such a massive transformation, Commander Pareshram has said he would have to put systems in place to curb any ‘obstacles’. He added that the challenges must be positively dealt with, and the Police would do so by collaborating with various communities.
“We are pushing forward. We want to build all the partnerships; we want to build all the safe communities that we can’t at this time. In the medium term, whatever systems we are putting in place, we will be able to cope with those challenges”, he said.
Last year, President Irfaan Ali announced that land-clearing works for new housing schemes would be undertaken around the country. He noted that the Government’s housing programme would create tens of thousands of jobs in the construction and home improvement sectors.
Moreover, the construction sector will be key to driving growth in Guyana’s non-oil sectors.
As part of the PPP/C Government’s ambitious plan to make available to citizens over 50,000 house lots over the next five years, the Housing Ministry has commenced steps to access 6,356 acres of land to help satisfy this demand.
In addition to other areas, the lands were being sought between Golden Grove and Peters Hall on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), and between Ogle and Cummings Lodge on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) for the development of additional housing schemes.
