Dear Editor,
Quite recently I was in the Rupununi, Region 9 and heard the following complaints from village residents.
- The Minister of Public Health Dr George Norton who said that he would visit Thelma Ribeiro at the Lethem hospital did not do so. Ms Rebeiro has still not regained consciousness after two surgeries for gallstones in April 2016. Even the Guyana Medical Council failed to carry out an investigation to determine the cause of Ms Rebeiro’s current health condition.
- The government’s Hinterland Employment Youth Service is in jeopardy because stipends are not being paid to participants of the programme.
- The Brazilians who are contracted by GWI to dig eight wells in the Rupununi region are not paying their Amerindian workers because they are alleging that the GWI is not paying the Brazilian contractors. Recently the Brazilians had to borrow money from a Shulinab businessman to pay their Amerindian workers. The businessman in Shulinab village has not being repaid as yet. Dr Richard Van West-Charles needs to urgently investigate this matter.
- In Parikwaranau village a known rancher has taken away a portion of village land where a house has been built and a ranch demarcated with the erection of a notice board. This matter was reported to Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs Sydney Allicock in August 2016 but so far no action has been taken. The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission was also called to investigate this.
- Contracts are being awarded to persons who can neither build nor repair roads, and as a result a lot of sub-standard work is being carried out. A road entering Aishalton was recently built but has now collapsed.
- Illegal mining activities at Marudi Mountain are causing severe environmental damage with no government interventions. The heavy trucks of the illegal miners are also destroying the main public road from Lethem to the deep south of the Rupununi. Has the mediation process headed by Mr Joe Singh in relation to mining at Marudi mountain failed?
- The second-hand all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) provided to health workers of the south Rupununi by the Ministry of Public Health will not last.
- Health workers do not get fuel now when they take out the sick from villages to the Lethem hospital and return.
- The police at one village are harassing villagers when they use their motorcycles because of not being licensed and not using helmets. The police do not wear helmets either when they are on motorcycles harassing the villagers. And when the police are on the road they leave the police station open and unattended. The licensing officer at the Lethem police station promised to have all motorcycles licensed in south Rupununi about a year ago. To date this has not been done.
- Aircraft are landing at times on makeshift airstrips about fifteen miles from a bus shed opposite the entrance to the Shiriri community on the main road. The relevant authorities should investigate.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Persaud
