Nestled aback the Region Five Administrative Complex at Fort Wellington, West Coast Berbice (WCB), about half a mile south of the public road, is a rapidly developing housing scheme on lands acquired from the Hopetown Multi-purpose Co-op Limited.
Catherina’s Lust South, as the scheme is officially known, is home to a number of retired public servants and several remigrant Guyanese who have acquired house lots in the scheme. There are also a number of homes under construction. The scheme is already serviced by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) and the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).
However, residents have had difficulty traversing the approximately half-mile stretch of access road between the scheme and the public road, particularly during the rainy season. While decision makers quibbled over whose responsibility it was to surface the road, persons, many of them public servants, were forced to use long boots to trudge through heavy mud to get to the public road.
Elements within the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) were known to have been objecting to the road being upgraded, citing that it is a farm-to-market road and that there was every likelihood that heavy agricultural machinery would damage the road.
The private company, Air Services Limited (ASL), having in the vicinity an aerodrome providing aerial services in the rice industry (broadcasting seed, applying fertilizer, and spraying for pest control), would access its facility via a section of the said road. The company deployed workers and machinery to carry out rehabilitative works on the said road, with approval from the relevant authorities. However, the company was forced to suspend the operation because of unfavourable weather conditions. Following a break in the weather, a new initiative was rolled out by the regional administration awarding a contract for the upgrading of the road.
According to the Department of Public Information, this was a welcome relief to farmers, and even more so for the residents of the Catherina’s Lust Housing Scheme. They are now facilitated by an all-weather road surfaced with crush-and-run costing $19 million.
Like Catherina’s Lust Housing Scheme, there is a section of Number Twenty-Two Village, on the eastern section, within the Union – Naarstigheid Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), whose residents have over the years felt neglected and have been clamouring for the upgrade of Baker Street.
No longer would folks be forced to cover longer distances to get home because they are trying to avoid the muddy street. Neither would the children be forced to cover longer distances to and from school during the rainy season.
Baker Street has been upgraded to a crush-and-run surface at a cost of just over $9 million.
