Dear Editor,
I wish to comment on a report about the conditions in Stevedore and Postel Housing Scheme based on a letter sent to your newspaper by the Guyana Water Inc (‘GWI cannot access Stevedore alleyway to clean transmission chamber because city council has not cleared it,’ 21.5.08).
A few years ago the residents in the community weeded the parapets, cleared all those drains and installed street lights through a privately funded initiative. (Your newspaper covered this initiative and carried relevant photographs.) Subsequently City Hall funded a working group drawn from the community to continue to clean and clear the drains. In the meantime, efforts were made to have the less than one mile of roads resurfaced. The roads are in a deplorable condition and in some parts are impassable; some taxi services have stopped serving the community.
The community development group urged city officials and the utilities concerned to be involved in the maintenance of the roads, parapets and the verges as this increases the efficiency of the services provided by the utilities. Unfortunately not much has happened in that regard, but let me point out that while the Guyana Water Inc has been effective in placing new pipelines in the area, the roads were left in worse condition than GWI found them after that pipe-laying exercise. This is not to say that GWI did not effect some repairs, but not to the satisfaction of several members of the community.
