- poor roads, electricity and telecommunication stifling community

For Karasabai villagers, a newspaper is a luxury.

According to villager Festus Thomas, it is one of the few things he appreciates whenever he travels to Lethem, where he enjoys the occasional reprieve from the tribulations of life in Karasabai.

Thomas, a teacher, lives in the Amerindian village, which is located on the left bank of the Ireng River and on the right bank of the Takutu River in North Rupununi.  The village is said to be home to about 1,700 people, the majority of whom survive doing subsistence farming.

Back to Thomas and his newspaper: He says it allows him to learn what is happening in other parts of the country, the region and the world. Karasabai is not in the headlines much these days. It had been in the headlines five years ago when a severe flooding threatened a food shortage after destroying many farms.

Today, Thomas believes that his village has much promise. But he says that poor roads, badly built bridges, poor electricity supply and the absence of a telecommunication system are among the problems severely hampering its development.

According to him, the roads in the village are so bad that buses cannot even enter. In fact, in times past the rough gravel roads caused serious damage to vehicles. He adds that due to the unavailability of transportation, villagers often have to walk several miles to get where they are going. And since there is no secondary school within his community, many secondary school students have to travel by foot to go to high school in Annai or some even as far as Lethem. With secondary school being so far away, it is not surprising that many of the young people in his village do not even attend school on a regular basis.  Fortunately the younger children get to attend the nursery and primary schools within the village

Another concern raised by Thomas is the quality of bridges being built within the community. He told this newspaper that within the last two years, three bridges — the Yurora, Jauri and the Estern — have been washed away. The destruction of these bridges has made travelling even harder, he says.

When Clarindo Lucas, the Chairman of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Nine was asked about the bridges, he said that he was only aware of damage done to the Yurora Bridge.   He said that the bridge suffered as a result of erosion of soil at the side of the bridge. The Chairman said, however, that the Office of the Prime Minister has already given its commitment towards the rebuilding the bridge and is donating some of the funds towards the refurbishing of the bridge. The Chairman said residents in the village can expect the bridge to be rebuilt shortly.

The absence of a telecommunications system within the community is another problem. Currently no landline telephone service or even cellular service is available. With the way things are, Thomas has to wait until he goes to Lethem or Annai, where he can have access to a telephone. (Stabroek News, however, was told that GT&T is working towards installation of a cell tower in the area.) Then there is the limited supply of electricity in the village. Residents say there is a small power plant that is used but it needs to be expanded to power the entire village.

For his part, Thomas is hopeful that one day members of his community can have a better life.  He remains optimistic that this development will happen sooner rather than later. He considers himself to be very fortunate. He is currently enrolled in the distance-education programme of the Cyril Potter’s College of Education (CPCE) and is required to travel to Lethem, from time to time to attend glasses. This allows him the luxuries he doesn’t have in his own village–not least of which is the electricity supply, the telephone service and of course, a paper.