Sections of land being developed to cater to the 5000 house lots to be distributed
Eighty persons who had previously been allocated moderate-income and middle-income lots at Great Diamond-Block One (Section One) have participated in a lot identification exercise on Friday.
Ecstatic land owners going to identify their house lots
This is the second batch of individuals to identify their lands in this scheme, following the installation of first-phase infrastructure such as roads, culverts, drainage networks and other amenities.
The scheme’s strategic location near the Great Diamond to Mandela Highway offers easy access and navigation between the East Bank Demerara and Georgetown and surrounding schemes, making it an ideal residential area for future homeowners.
Lot identification exercises are ongoing in several areas across the country. Last year, the Housing and Water Ministry reported that some 5000 house lots for various brackets would be made available at six blocks in the Great Diamond and Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara (ECD) areas. Infrastructural works in the various areas are pegged at close to $17 billion. These include land clearing, construction of access roads and installation of pipe networks.
A family identifying their plot of land at Great Diamond
The PPP/C Government has committed to delivering 50,000 house lots to Guyanese within its first term in office. It entered office when there was a backlog of over 76,000 applications. Having distributed almost 30,000 lots, there are approximately 57,000 pending house-lot applications.
From the 30,000 plus house lots allocated in just about three years, 54 per cent were granted to young persons. Some 50 per cent of allocations also encompassed single women.
Last August, the Ministry outlined that infrastructural works are ongoing in several schemes along the East Bank Demerara to accommodate more than 5000 low-, moderate- and middle-income residential house lots, and industrial/ commercial lots, spanning some 1700 acres of land.
In addition to providing citizens with affordable housing alternatives, the Government intends to construct 2000 homes in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) by the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, concerns about potential discrimination in the award of house lots were recently addressed, with Minister Susan Rodrigues maintaining, “There is no discrimination, whether based on ethnicity or religion or race or gender. We have effectively killed that criticism because we have provided the data on our site.”
