The business community and some residents in Lethem do not feel that the border township is ready for the level of trans-border activities which is expected in another few months when the Takutu Bridge opens, because of the lack of physical infrastructure and services.
However, the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) feels that the physical infrastructure in its current stage of development would be sufficient to meet the demand, Region Nine (Upper Essequibo/Upper Takutu) Regional Vice-Chairman Claire Singh said.
Businesswoman/Regional Councillor Shirley Melville told Stabroek News in a telephone interview that a poor water supply, poor electricity supply and environmental hazards were the main problems affecting the community, and she could not see these being remedied in the short term unless the government decided to invest substantial financial resources in the area.
The Vice-Chairman said that Lethem received piped water for 18 hours a day, although the quality of the water was suspect and most residents did not consume it. She said that residents had raised this issue with Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony about two weeks ago during a public consultation on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) held at Lethem.
Vice-Chairman Singh said that construction of the 25-bed Lethem Hospital was about to be completed. That should alleviate some of the problems being experienced in the delivery of health services to the region.
Stabroek News understands that the Lethem Hospital is at present impeded from providing the best quality service owing to an inadequate water supply. The washrooms in the ante-natal clinic are closed because of the lack of water.
Melville said that the new hospital, which she expected would be in use even before the building was complete and had been officially opened, would need an adequate supply of water.
Resident Clairmonte Lye in a letter to the editor of Stabroek News of January 25, 2008 said that he saw little to convince him that the government was serious enough about Lethem’s border town status and all that went with it.
In a few months’ time when the bridge would have been completed, he said, Brazilians would cross the border to find an area not yet designated a town and where household garbage had not been collected in many months.
He said they would see litter strewn all along the parapets and the unpaved roads; the prevailing dust choking pedestrians, causing many respiratory problems; and sheep, goats, pigs and horses roaming the streets at will.
Brazilians, he went on, would have to get accustomed to having no water in the mains for seventeen hours or more a day, or in some areas not at all, and they would experience no electricity for six hours a day and be told that the Guyana Government had put the onus for fixing the Moco Moco hydro facility on the private sector.
Recalling that President Bharrat Jagdeo had said that the road to Lethem was not a financially feasible project, he said it was strange that “this strange economic logic might be the obstacle to accelerated development in the Rupununi in the near future.”
Finally, he said, Brazilians would be astonished to hear that Portuguese was not being taught in schools in the Rupununi.
Brazil, on the other hand, was way ahead in this regard in Bon Fim. English was a compulsory language at the secondary school level with classes for Guyanese who wanted to learn Portuguese. Their customs and immigration facilities had been completed and their main roads paved; there was a regular garbage collection service, 24-hour electricity and a steady water supply, while businessmen had already been taught tourism awareness. “Argue this and you will be told that Brazil is a richer country, so what do you expect,” Lye remarked.
Stating that Lye’s observations were “very factual and correct,” Melville said that apart from the water, “which is not consumable,” electricity might be supplied on an 18-hour basis but it was insufficient to meet the growing population and its demands.
During the 18-hour period, she said, there was load-shedding in different areas to ensure that all residents got some supply of energy during the period.
“This is because there is simply insufficient power to meet the needs of Lethem and the new housing schemes, Culvert City and Tabatinga,” she said, adding that the Moco Moco hydro electricity station was down and the future of the project was now uncertain.
‘Embarrassment for
a border town’
Commenting on the road leading to the transnational Takutu Bridge, she said that as soon as anyone got off the bridge at the Lethem end they would go onto a gravel road with lots of potholes and garbage littering the place. “It is an embarrassment for a border town,” she said.
She said that residents, the business community and the RDC had been pleading for many of the problems to be addressed one way or the other.
At the local level, she said that resource and community-minded citizens who could assist tried to do so, but there was “only so much” that they could do without financial resources and the know-how.
Responding to the reports about the road and getting all the problems corrected in a short space of time, she said that work would be undertaken depending on how the government allocated funds. “The finances are just not enough,” she said, adding that the finances in any case did not cater for paved roads but would be sufficient for a gravel road.
On the issue of the Portuguese language being taught in Lethem, she said that the RDC had made requests for this to be done time and again, and they still expected some positive action in this regard. She said that years ago Portuguese had been taught at the secondary school level, but that this was no longer the case.
However, she noted that the language was understood in the area.
While many did not speak it they could understand it simply because almost every house in Lethem was hooked up to Sky TV and/or the “parbolic dish.” The “parbolic dish” she said, provided television programmes in Portuguese with one English programme at night.
Singh said that the problem with garbage collection was also related to the fact that Lethem had a young neighbourhood democratic council (NDC) and the by-laws of the NDC had not been enforced and neither had the NDC begun the collection of rates and taxes.
About the absence of a resident doctor in the area for lengthy periods, forcing patients to seek medical services in Brazil, she said that at present there were two doctors – a Cuban and a volunteer – who we stationed at the hospital. However, she said that when the resident doctor went on leave the area was generally left without one, a situation which she said would have to be addressed.
Development
However, Singh argued that Lethem had seen a lot of development over the years and was ready for the opening of the bridge and the activities that it would generate. Melville on the other hand while admitting there had been development, said it was just that Lethem in its present state was not ready for the opening of the border. There would be benefits but there would be serious consequences, including embarrassment resulting from the lack of preparedness.
