“This community future hinge on three things – water, light and roads,” says Vanessa O’Donoghue, a resident of the small community of Barnwell on the East Bank of Demerara. O’Donoghue is one of several residents of the community of approximately 700 persons who settled in the area more than two decades ago. Barnwell is located approximately two-and-a-half miles from the EBD public road and is not far from Mocha-Arcadia.
O’Donoghue, who is regarded as one of the community’s ‘organisers,’ explained that Barnwell is divided into two sections as specified by the Ministry of Housing and Water land allocation department – Barnwell North and the New Prosperity housing area. The former was once a squatting area but is in the process of being regularized. She said that the settlement was initially a farming area, and that when Mocha Arcadia was established years ago, Barnwell was set aside for farmers from that community to plant their crops. As time progressed, however, persons eventually moved into the area to live, and eventually the population grew to what it is today.
The community organizer, who has lived at Barnwell for the past 20 years, noted that at the moment there are
