President discusses development plans with North Rupununi residents

President Donald Ramotar spent last weekend with Amerindians in the North Rupununi, Region Nine, listening to their concerns and apprising them of his Government’s efforts over the years to develop their living standards.
Community meetings were held in Annai, Karasabai and Potarinau with a visiting team that included Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs Nigel Dharamlall and an entourage of regional officials.
During the engagements, sewing machines and chainsaws were handed over to residents of the three communities and an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) dedicated to the malaria fight arrived. Yakarinta, Crash Water, Toka and Wowetta were given cheques valued in millions to fund development projects.
Bertie Xavier, Senior Councillor of Wowetta received two cheques valued at Gy1.5M each for construction of a village office, and for an ecotourism project. The latter promises job creation and training in the areas of hospitality, tour guides, and cassava processing demonstrations.
The Amerindians were updated of sums that will soon be disbursed to kick-start their Community Development Projects (CDPs) with the signing off of the Guyana Redd+ Investment Fund (GRIF) in August.
Among the first beneficiaries are Kwaimatta (cassava production,) Rupertee, (cassava processing facility), Aranaputa (cash crop farm), Annai Central (aquaculture farm) Apoteri (skill centre) and Wowetta (eco-tourism project).
A total of 166 CDPs designed and approved at the village level are slated to be implemented with the Gy$1.2B GRIF fund that the Guyana Government and its implementing partner, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed-off in August.
The government is heartened by the news that 80 percent of the CDPs are agriculture-based especially with plans to improve ingress and egress with upgrades to the Linden/Lethem road.
With the country also holding the promise as a gateway to South America for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and vice versa, President Ramotar told the Amerindians of plans to construct an all-weather road through the Rupununi.

“You will then have a bigger market to sell your products to and a road of that nature can make it cheap to take your products down. That is why we want to build that road,” President Ramotar said.
In response to residents who complain about lack of jobs in the Region, President Ramotar said with cheap energy in the making, the government can encourage investments in the Rupununi like agro-processing where the job possibilities are endless.
The Government has also been encouraging communities that are at the centre of natural settings, to pioneer nature-based ecotourism that attract tourists who are looking for unique adventures.
“We want to do another kind of tourism which is called community tourism where 85 percent of the dollar must stay in the community… the community will be the tourist guides, the community will provide the food for the people so that the community can develop,” President Ramotar said.
By the end of 2011, about Gy$75.3M had been injected directly from the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs in the form of support to the North Rupununi, representing only 60 percent of their benefit, according to Dharamlall.
Investments in hinterland education have elevated the delivery from primary to secondary level education and the construction of new schools with dormitories where children benefit from free uniforms, a hot meal and transportation.
Scholarships for hinterland students to attend schools in Georgetown led to one of the awardees topping President’s College a few years back and a number of others studying to become doctors in Cuba.
Minister Ramsaran informed the residents that Cuban trained Guyanese doctors will soon be deployed to the area but in the interim, some of the country’s best doctors will be arriving in roving teams, periodically.
In response to concerns by a resident of Annai, the Minister promised to look into improvements at the Lethem Regional hospital laboratory section and upgrades to the midwifery section of the Annai hospital.