Number 65 Village Squatting Area residents beg for Govt’s help

By Andrew Carmichael

Residents of Number 65 Village Squatting Area, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), are calling for the Government of the day to provide them with the basic amenities to lead healthy and comfortable lives.

Currently, more than 25 poor and vulnerable families live on the Government reserve and have no access to running water or electricity. Almost all the families have young children that need these basic amenities in order to live comfortably – with access to potable water being the most important.
The families have been living there for over one decade now and the Governments have failed to address the situation despite numerous calls for them to have the area regularised.
Many of the houses in the community could be best described as shacks and with the current May-June rainy season being in effect, it makes life even more challenging because many of the residents have thatched roofs. Thatched roofs mean that their entire shacks are more often than not, soaked from water leaking in. They also have to deal with the fact that the area in which they live would also be flooded.
One of the squatting area’s younger resident, 20-year-old Melvin Kewley explained that in order to get a cellular phone charged, it has to be taken to someone who has electricity.
“We don’t have water and electricity. This is the time of COVID-19. Schools are closed and the children have to use the internet to get lessons,” he said.
He noted that they have been unsuccessful in attempts to get the necessary documentation from the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) which will allow them to be able to approach the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) and Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to have them install those utilities.
He noted that persons in nearby communities are reluctant to allow the squatters to use water from their taps for fear that GWI will disconnect those customers as well as concerns over their bills.
Some of the villagers said that it has happened in the past.
“Right now, the whole place is mud. Sometimes the whole place is flooded when rain falls. When we go to the bigger ones, they will always say that they will come and check but nobody does come,” Kewley explained.
Even though schools have been closed for than two months, 30-year-old Velma Kewley, a mother of six noted some of the difficulties her children have experienced having to do school homework with electricity. But as it is now, they have no access to electricity, thus making them more vulnerable since learning has moved online.
“They just got to sit down and wait until school opens again,” she said while noting that four of her children are still in school.
However, while those residents claimed that they have not been visited by Government officials, during the campaign period leading up to the 2020 National and Regional Elections, an NDC Councillor did visit along with some of the political colleagues. The residents were given a grand promise of getting help.
According to some residents, on polling day they took into account the promises that were made to them. The residents reported that they are still waiting on any form of assistance from the leaders.

Meanwhile, regional representative Goblin Harbhajan, who also lives in the NDC area, said a few days ago was the first time he visited the community when the plight of those residents was brought to his attention. He has since been able to get a local rice milling company to provide some assistance to the residents.
He said he was shocked to see the condition under which those residences are living. However, he noted that there are three Councillors who sit on the NDC living between Number 63 to 68 Villages.
“They never looked into the interest of these people. One of them told me that they went to the NDC several times for a basic thing like a letter because it is a reserve; so that they can get electricity and water,” Harbhajan noted.
He noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, those residents are forced to leave their homes to get their phones charged. Harbhajan, who was a Councillor under the last Regional Democratic Council (RDC), noted that the issue was never brought up at that level even though an RDC Councillor lives a short distance away.
He is calling on the NDC to look into the affairs of those residents. However, the 20-year-old Kewley is looking to higher authorities.
“The place needs to be better. Everybody needs to have their own things. This is not the time to suffer. So, I am asking that who even go into power for 2020, please look at the people of Number 65 Village who are suffering. Make them happy. The children are suffering with their educational needs.”
There are more than sixty children in that community.