The Regional Democratic Council of Region One (Barima-Waini) has budgeted for several infrastructural projects that will get underway this year. Among them is the construction of a new nursery school to be built at a cost of $10.3 million at Kamwatta, Moruca.
Vice Chairperson of Region One RDC, Sarah Brown, has said the new school will cater for 42 nursery students. According to her, extensions will also be done to the Santa Rosa Nursery School at a cost of $13.3million. The school has an enrollment of 142 pupils, but was built with the capacity to accommodate 100
Region One Vice Chairperson, Sarah Browne
students.
Additionally, the Sacred Heart Primary School in the Aruka River will also be extended in 2018. The school was built to accommodate 60 pupils but is currently accommodating 118 pupils.
Brown has said these extensions are necessary, as the RDC recognised that the school population has been increasing gradually.
Brown, who as chair of the RDC Public Infrastructure Standing Committee also holds oversight for new infrastructural projects and upgrades, told Guyana Times that a decision was taken to ensure that audit queries are reduced, especially when it comes to the execution of the capital projects.
She said that as the person responsible for signing off the final payments and for verification, she has made it her duty to work with the RDC team to push for the completion of most capital projects in 2017, which was a success.
Shifting her attention back to the infrastructural projects, the RDC Vice- Chair noted that $18 million have also been set aside for extension to be undertaken to the Warapuka Primary School. While the school was built to accommodate 90 pupils, it now has 149 students. Asakasa and Port Kaituma Primary schools will also be extended.
While a large sum has been allocated for the RDC’s projects for 2018 in the education sector, Brown noted that the largest capital programmes are in the health sector. As such, an X-ray room and laboratory is set to be constructed at the Pakaira District Hospital at Matthew’s Ridge.
This will cater for medical services, especially in cases of trauma. It will facilitate patients in nearby villages also, such as Baramita and other areas. “That would reduce the patient transfer for simple X-ray and lab services, and that project would cater for over 1,500 residents in the Matarkai sub-region,” she said.
Upgrade to the staff quarters at Mabaruma Hospital is also part of the RDC’s plan for 2018, while a doctor’s quarters is expected to be constructed at Waramuri, Moruca. “That is housing a resident doctor, and the hospital caters for additional satellite villages,” the RDC Vice-Chair added.
Meanwhile, the RDC official told this newspaper that incinerators to the tune of $6M each will be built at Arakaka and Waramuri. “We will be installing an oxygen distribution network for Picari District Hospital. That would cater for asthmatic crisis, infant and maternal emergencies, etcetera.”
At present, there is a 100 pound oxygen cylinder at the Hospital, and that has to be moved several times to different beds. Brown said, “When that (oxygen distribution network) is installed, that (moving of the cylinder) will be reduced.”
A morgue will, in 2018, be constructed in Baramita to cater for the high murder and suicide rates.
