The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has been ordered to restart operations at the Enmore Sugar Estate by early 2022, which has prompted the commencement of work at Success, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
This is the same area which has been taken over by mass squatting in recent months, damaging 17,000 varieties of sugar cane in the process. These persons have been asked to vacate, but a few are still non-compliant, refusing to cease the illegal inhabitance of State lands.
Squatters are yet to remove from the flooded lands
GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sasenarine Singh said that while the squatters have been affected by these steps, the Housing and Water Ministry had urged them to relocate and as such, arrangements were even made for other parcels of land to be made available.
“GuySuCo is not a housing agency. We are an agricultural agency and our exclusive business is in the cultivation and production of sugar and value-added sugar-related products, and that is all we are trying to do in a legal and a legitimate way,” Singh voiced.
The CEO explained that to have successful outcomes from the sugar mills at Enmore, there must be a supply of one-year-old matured sugar canes. As a result, land tillage needs to commence next January.
“We are not doing anything that is against the law. We are basically trying to produce sugar from sugar lands, feed the sugar mills, and produce sugar for Enmore, so that we can create over 2000 jobs,” he said.
Singh believes that the sugar company was not being unreasonable, since it had previously parcelled off and transferred high-value lands to the Housing Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to facilitate 28,000 house lots.
Enmore remains with approximately 6881 hectares of lands and this amount has to be cultivated to accomplish the Government’s mandate.
Sections of the plot at Success were inundated with water on Thursday when <<<Guyana Times>>> visited the area. According to persons on site, the water appeared around their quarters on Wednesday afternoon.
One woman told this publication, “Everything wet up inside the house ‘cause the water come from everywhere…We couldn’t sleep there ‘cause all we beds wet.”
Another squatter, Carl Brown voiced, “These people use all their money to put up something and all of it flooded out.”
Over the past weeks, persons have vacated the lands they were occupying after being informed that alternative accommodations would be made available. To date, some persons have remained on the flooded property and have displayed reluctance when confronted with the idea of vacating.
The mass squatting had resulted in a confrontation between residents and State officials, after these persons were informed that they are squatting on Government reserves.
Persons even became violent when they were asked to remove from the lands, which belong to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), primarily at Vryheid’s Lust, Success, and Chateau Margot.
It was reported that lands in 22 areas on the East Coast, East Bank, and West Bank Demerara; Linden; Berbice and Essequibo, were approved in the 2020 Emergency Budget last week. This publication understands that allocations for the residents would fall under this project.
In September, a meeting was convened and Government’s zero-tolerance position on squatting was further made clear. The Ministry has assured that all the necessary infrastructure for sustainable housing: such as roads, electricity, lights, and drainage and irrigation, will be installed at whichever locations these persons are placed.
Already, the issue of squatting in this area has resulted in dire consequences for GuySuCo. The Corporation lost a significant quantity of its research crop at the Chateau Margot nursery, after some 17,000 varieties of sugar cane were destroyed by the squatters to make room for their dwellings.
The damaged plants were of fine quality, with the potential to earn the country billions per year. The loss has also dampened Guyana’s thrust in the sector, since years of research have been completely devastated.
