Some $500M is to be invested in one of the fastest growing housing areas in the country, the Diamond/Grove housing scheme, with the establishment of three banks, a gas station, a shopping mall as well as a market and another access road being proposed for the area.
According to a release from the Government Information Agency, Minister of Housing Irfaan Ali, Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall, and Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, met on Friday with stakeholders at the Housing Ministry to discuss the multi-million dollar plan, intended to change the landscape of the area which is soon to be converted into a town.
The issue of congestion at the entrance leading to the housing scheme was also discussed at the forum along with measures which could be implemented to curb traffic congestion in the area.
GINA also stated that the administration has expended more than $2B to develop the housing area with 50% of that sum being spent on basic infrastructure such as roads and a water supply system while plans are also underway for the establishment of multi-purpose centre for the area which will serve the community’s educational needs.
With less than a year and a half to go before 2011 elections, the political gimmicks have begun to take shape. Look for more projects that were deliberately delayed to coincide with election campaigning and all the goodies in the bag coming out.
Funny thing is, after 17 years, electricity and potable water supplies are still major issues throughout Guyana, but the government is going ahead with a $500M (US$2.5M) plan for developing Diamond Housing Scheme with 1) three banks, 2) a gas station, 3) mall, 4) a market and 5) an access road. Can US$2.5M do all these things? Remember US$1M = GY$200M.
Who is financing these projects and who will be constructing/running them?
The PPP’s shenanigans are clear as day.
This is all nonsense to fool the people of this country yet again that the PPP has some kind of vision and they will throw no ends of money to build the facade.
PPP should move to hollywood.
Dandy Andy,,,The Government will put you , Samaroo and the ACF to run these projects,,,What you think??? For every election there is a five year period to do developments Mr Dandy…Isn’t these projects in the 5 year period from 2006 to 2011??? If you have the slightest idea how a Country runs you will understand this otherwise you will join Samaroo with senseless comments…
Solideer it is amazing how far against the grain you are, read freddie kissoons articles man you will see they have the same sentiment of people who know what this government is doing, it reflects the corruption and mismanagement that has been wrought over this country by your poo poo poo and the poovillers.
5 years you claim? your govt has been in there for 17 years but of course you claim its all the 28 years ow laudo the phenc own laudo mek we cant recover it gonna tek another 100 years to fix.
On a parting note Soldier any idea where that 3 Billion dollars in lotto funds are spent yearly? This almost seems worse than Burnhame, thoughts?
And what does a HYDRAULICS MINISTER do?
giving lifts, eheheheheheh.
Here again the model is entirely wrong. Stop copycating the American model of urban development. The shopping malls is the next real estate bubble to crash in America. If it crashes in America it will also crash in Guyana.
There is no need to follow this approach. Guyana has got all the means necessary to build communities that are green, sustainable, life supporting economic engines that can feed, nourish and employ the people all at the same time. When they would have accomplished this ideal then they can afford to go shop at a shopping mall.
Listen my friends, in Guyana a family can live quite comfortably in a Logee with some hammocks and a fireside. That’s the way the Amerindians live. Here’s the difference. The Amerindians are hunter gatherers who forage the forest, while the urban dweller will find themselves foraging in other neighbourhoods. In civil societies this is called traspassing on private property.
To cram people in these urban blocks of eventual social decay is self defeating and will end up with a growing mass of urban foragers wandering into other neighbourhoods. This is known as petty theft and crime and will end up in default on home loans among other things. Create conditions of enterprise and the community will spring alive with innovative ideas and development of their own.
Joe.
joe you have the gated community, houses with swimming pool, so call bubble jets bath tubs, and all the other holidays commercialize.
these people are not leaders but followers as if the north is the best example while they are all failing now.
BIG IS BETTER MENTALITY ARE ALL COLLAPSING NOW.
freespeech,
That is because they sold us and themselves the hype that bigger is better. Now they are fooling themselves with too big to fail when the slogan should be “Too big to exist”
Joe.
They are going to build all these things with no assurance of dependable (not to mention affordable) sources of water and elcetricity supplies. This is absolutely a recipe for failure. Who are advising these people?
To service this new housing scheme and other buildings I suppose they are depending on the mutlimillion-dollar well that the Trinidadians were contracted to drill in the Grove/Diamond area. I’ve already commented on that drilling project. To repeat, those Trinidadians are “oil well” drillers. They are not trained to drill water wells. They are not following conventional water well drilling protocol. That well will fail and by the time the Government discovers this, Trini will be long gone.
Will these Ministers ever going to learn from their experiences with Trinidadian drillers?
waterman you will find the water before the oil, some hope there.
As Dandy Andy says, “the 2011 elections gimmicks have begun.” All of those outstanding projects for which the completion deadlines have been slipping for months, if not years, will gradually be concluded just before the big day, to remind the gullible supporters how good is the current government for the country. The government is in quite a haste to establish ‘new towns’ even while the established townships, particularly New Amsterdam and Linden, are neglected for want of support from the central government. What about a ’stimulus package’ for the local government bodies of these two towns; structured along a similar format as that extended to the M&CC of Georgetown? No wonder many people, at home and abroad, are of the view that Georgetown is equivalent to Guyana. Anyway, if national elections is what it takes to ’see’ things done, then 2011 cannot come fast enough for me.
Very nice election promises. Last election the town of Linden was showered with promises. For the past 50 plus years, the first street of Grove Housing Scheme has been a brick road, the difference now is, you can fit a car in the pot holes. The people in this area are not easily fooled.
Allow me to expand on my idea of urban development and sustained living. The bank and gas station ok, as long as we keep in mind that these businesses will also double as stick up centers for urban foragers.
Shopping malls. Nada, not right now. Edible landscapes, that right my friends the community must become a smorgasborg of fresh living fruits and vegetables. Every rooftop, every window sill, every backyard and fence must overflow with a riot of food in every description. No person in the community regardless of income must know the meaning of hunger.
We must and can produce such and overabundance that we must go begging our neighbour who in turn is begging their neighbour to just come and take some produce. It is free and was created with no effort at all.
This can all be done with the “Poor, fat, lazy man’s farming method” which I have developed over the years.
The school compound must have a farming plot where the children would learn new organic farming methods and be able to sell their crops to the local grocery store.
A school craft center, now this is where we do need to borrow and copycat American ingeniousness. The American handicrafters are among the best in innovation. For instance I can show the kids how to make colored post cards and picture frames with recycled old news paper, dried grass and flower petals and even make it fragrant with a few drops of perfume and cinnamon. The handicraft in Guyana has that local look, it needs to be spiced up.
Line the roads with bamboo and Neem trees, set up a brick factory that makes mud bricks so that the roads will be kept in constant repair. There are dozens of other village things that I can mention. I will take a book.
It is not necessary for every child to be given an academic education. For children like myself who hated school a good primary education and a love for reading is all that is necessary to function in this community I have just described.
Teach the children the interdependency of everything that exists in the community. Let them learn to appreciate love, protect and care for everything in the community and out of that, will emerge a vibrant new set of values that will encourage development and progress for generations to come.
When the developers leave the community they must leave the seeds of innovative development and hope of a brighter future all interwoven into the fabric of the housing scheme.
Either that or they would have just created a communal cesspool of urban decay, human filth and crime.
Joe.
Regardless if the Gov’ment just faking this , Grove/Diamond area need such improvement , it’s time ! The next move in that area is for the GPF to go in at Caneville and catch all the criminals hiding out in that area. Since that area opened the whole grove area can’t rest in peace with the theifing that’s going on there.
I guess if this money should be spent in buxton.
No Brandon, it is either that or another Hopeless Canal.
Or a bridge ceasar and bankrupt another organization that is the backbone of our retirees or even better maybe 2 more antique helicopters to later fill out the Ex Presidente’s garden with aviation ornaments.
Christ. What a place to spend $500 million. A dump.This place need a buldozer instead of $500 million .
Well its either that or another hotel project take your pick Ceasar?
Dear Editor,
A HOUSING SCHEME is a HOUSING SCHEME. How can Government decide to turn a HOUSING SCHEME into a town? I hope that the NEW HOUSING SCHEME is NOT INCLUDED in this new ‘township’. The banks and other commercial entities will be established along the OLD Diamond Settlement along the East Bank Public Road. There is no need to make a RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT into a town. What crassness is this? When we decided to make our home in a housing scheme, we never thought that (like the residents of Sheriff Street), our community will become a center for commercial activity. So now after building one’s home in a quiet residential area, here comes this stupid plan to make it into a township. So RUM SHOPS, BEER GARDENS, generally businesses generating heavy traffic, as well as pollution especially noise pollution, will become the order of what was supposed to be a quiet residential district. The idea of a township is only so that they can increase their revenues from MUNICIPAL RATES & TAXES. I know this well as when growing up in ROSE HALL ‘TOWN’, my mother always wondered why Rose Hall Village ever became a town. The only thing residents see is increased rates and taxes.
Diamond New Housing Scheme as it is right now needs not become a town. The roads are falling apart there. In 7th street, Section B, Block X, for example, there is a massive crater that no vehicle dare go through. The roads are crumbling and nothing is being done to fix them.
When the PPP congress was held two years ago in Diamond, streetlights were installed specially for that occassion. They were subsequently removed after the congress.
The drains and road shoulders in the housing scheme are being taken over by thick bushes. Only a four weeks ago, I had cause to kill a snake that entered my yard. This is not the first time this has happened. The housing scheme is one big bush land. Garbage collection is unpredictable. And water supply? Let’s not go there. Black tanks to keep rainwater is the option of most. And they tell me about township. Ha! Nonsense.
Dwayne Hackett
Resident of Diamond.
Hai bhai, Diamond sound just like RHT of the past and present. The ole lady had a saying about RHT, something about it being a town surrounded by dung. She’s have found a choice one for Diamond.