The Alliance For Change (AFC) on Friday donated six black tanks to the Waiakabra community on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway and called for swift government intervention to ensure a better quality of life for this depressed area.
The tanks were donated by AFC Executive Member Gerhard Ramsaroop, a press release said. Waiakabra is yet to be regularised and does not have access to potable water. In the meantime the mainly Amerindian community depends on two creeks, one of which was dug on Ramsaroop’s farm which he maintains for the community. The other creek is in an abandoned sand pit, which Ramsaroop also maintains.
Waiakabra is a depressed community with few job opportunities. Some persons eke out a living by digging with their bare hands for scraps of metal buried by the now defunct Ideal/GRL factory. “The water situation, especially with the present extreme weather, only increases their burden. Women, including the elderly, and children, are forced to fetch water over long distances and over hills,” the party said.
The AFC is therefore renewing its call to government, in particular the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the Guyana Water Incorporated, to intervene urgently to enhance the quality of life of this community and others that are similarly affected.
