By Mario Joseph
(This is the seventh in a series on local government)
In the shadow of Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara, there exists a small squatter settlement just off the Public Road shielded only by a large church and loads of bushes. Behind those bushes live over 100 Guyanese, with nowhere to turn to, people who have set up squatting homes as their refuge under the authority of the former government that permitted them to do so. In the location called the Swan Street Squatting Area, named after the well-laid road, built only a year ago, the street provides their only direct access to makeshift footpaths that lead to their homes.
Stabroek News observed a stunning change of scenery from the neatly carved infrastructure throughout most of the West Coast Village of Pouderoyen and nearby villages of Best, Klien and Vreed-en-Hoop, to a depressing way of life for many who cling to little hope. The first resident to be located, lived just off the edge of the squalid settlement. Her name was Sherene Hamilton and she has seven children to care for. Her home was poorly constructed with rotten wood thatched together by some rusty nails suspended over a garbage heap. The matchbox home which could be described as an all in one, bedroom, living room and kitchen, with no indoor bathroom would be no bigger than one quarter the size of a public school classroom. This makeshift abode has been called home for the 32 year old for the past 15 years and the entire lives of each of her seven children, the eldest of whom is 14 years old.
Hamilton’s complaints were endless, starting with the deprivation of electricity, water and telephone lines, which are just the basics. She said that she and several residents had visited the Guyana Power and Light, Guyana Water Incorporated and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company on numerous occasions only to be turned away or to face the blunt bureaucracy of the Government which she says is intended to make you give up. She says she experiences severe flooding even when there is only little rainfall. With her home situated over some mud and bordering a cemetery, the underside of the
