Committed efforts are being made to establish a Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) for the community of Mahdia to facilitate its journey to township status.
This was announced by the Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), Gavin Gounga, who told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan is expected to visit the community
The entrance to Mahdia
shortly to install an Interim Management Community (IMC).
This IMC will manage the NDC until the expected Local Government Elections in 2018 which will see the duly elected local representatives taking over.
The mining community is expected to be gazetted as a township before the end of 2017 and the formation of the NDC is one of the loose strings that need to be tied as the time for Mahdia achieving township status draws closer.
Gounga explained that a list of persons eligible to serve on the IMC has already been submitted to the Minister as he further disclosed that Minister Bulkan was also expected to commission a tractor to the community, to facilitate the removal of solid waste around the area. The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government in 2016 granted township status to three communities Mabaruma (Region One); Bartica (Region Seven); and Lethem (Region Nine) and while Mahdia was among the communities expected to achieve this status, the process was delayed largely owing to issues related to the demarcation of the constituency boundaries and the non-existence of the NDC.
According to media reports, Minister Bulkan has assured that the challenges related to the attainment of township status for Mahdia were being addressed through a work programme.
The formation of the new towns is part of the Government’s policy and vision of fostering national development through regional and local empowerment. By standing as administrative centres in the respective administrative regions, these towns will provide key governmental services to communities.
President David Granger believes that the founding of these towns will generate economic activity towards the development of “a single economy”. Granger recently emphasised the need for Guyana to build an entrepreneurial class, access cheap energy, bridge the Essequibo River and diversify the national economy to reduce its dependence on the “six sisters” – rice, sugar, bauxite, gold, timber, and fish.
Mahdia is a small community in the Potaro-Siparuni district with a population of approximately 4500, comprising Guyanese of various backgrounds. Economic activity in the community is centred on small and large-scale gold and diamond mining operations.
