Dear Editor,

We, the concerned residents of Ninth Street (A) Block (Y) Cummings Lodge wish to make public that our street has not been fixed. When work on the other streets was beginning we were informed that our street (9th Street A) was not on the plan – for what reason we do not know.

We wrote the Minister of Housing on November 7, 2007; we then wrote again on November 7, 2008, when Minister Nawbatt was in office. Since we did not get anywhere from that we wrote on February 24, 2009, this time to Minister of Housing Irfaan Ali. We visited the Ministry of Housing several times. The last visit was on May 20, 2009.

In our presence the Minister informed one of the engineers from Housing to get some paperwork in place so that the street could get started by the end of May 2009. To date we observed that nothing has been done, and the rainy season is fast approaching.

During the rainy season this street usually becomes impassable; children cannot attend school and the elderly cannot seek medical attention.

We hereby seek to advise the Minister of Housing of our situation, so that we can get our street to use before the rainy season is here.

We would also like to state here that all the other streets have been finished – ten on the western side and eleven on the eastern side. Only ours, Ninth Street (A) on the eastern side has not had any work done on it as of June 4, 2009.

Yours faithfully,
Balkarran Kowlessar
Gladys Allen
and 15 others

Editor’s note:

We sent a copy of this letter to Minister of Housing, Mr Irfaan Ali for any comments he might have wished to make, and received the following response from Senior Engineer (ag), Mr F Wahab, of the Central Housing and Planning Authority:

“Re: Construction of roads, drains and structures at Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, Region #4

“Please be advised that the project at caption has been awarded. The following are the contract particulars:

“(1) Original commencement date: May 22, 2009; revised commencement date: June 19, 2009

“(2) Intended completion date: August 9, 2009; revised completion date: September 8, 2009

“(3) Defects liability period: September 9, 2009-September 8, 2010

“(4) Client: Ministry of Housing & Water, Central Housing & Planning Authority

“(5) Contract sum: $14,629,960.00

“(6) Project scope: The works consist of the construction of 975 metres of roads which will be surfaced with crusher run, and the installation of 900m of 100mm diameter pure water distribution mains, inclusive of valves, fittings and ductile iron crossings.

“All for your information and guidance.”