Savannah Park residents question cost for house lots

Residents of Savannah Park in New Amsterdam, Berbice are questioning the costs they have to pay for lands they have been squatting on for close to two decades.
There are 27 homes in the community comprising of more than 150 residents, who say they are being asked to pay $700,000 for a house lot with dimensions of 48 feet by 75 feet.
Munishwar Sugrim, who has been living at Savannah Park for the past 15 years, told this publication that when he moved there, the area was covered with thorns and other thick vegetation.
According to him, the dam which they now use for access was impassable. Over the years, he noted, the residents have been able to develop the area.
“We don’t have water and light,” he said.
Sugrim has been living on a plot of land three sides of which measure 45 feet, while the fourth side measures 75-feet.
He said the residents were summoned to a meeting with the Mayor and

Councillors, where they were told that they have to pay $700,000 for a plot of land.
“We don’t deny that we have to pay for the land, but the price, $700,000, I don’t have that amount of money to pay them, because I have four children going to school. It isn’t easy to send four children to school when you don’t have light and water, and that is the most important thing to make people comfortable,” another resident said.
According to him, he does not want to move because he has already developed the land and has fruit trees growing thereon.
Recently, residents were being asked to pay $79,000 and $98,000 at Angoy’s Avenue. While the prices were determined by the size of land, none was sold for more than a $100,000
Meanwhile, another resident, Jeffin Bhandan, told this publication that the price of $700,000 for a plot of land in that area is too expensive.
“We are seeking help from, not the council, but somebody else also so they could have it reduced. When we first came at the back here, there was a lot of bush and all kind of things, and people came and help develop the place. I know my mother living at the back here for eighteen years, and we come and reach people at the back here. The previous Mayor come and tell people that they can’t live here, and people end up leaving, but we remain,” Bhandan said.
The area was recently surveyed by the municipality.
Angela Richards, who operates a mobile vegetable business, explained that a lot of work was put into developing the area at Savannah Park over the nine years she has been living there.
She said she cannot afford to pay $700,000 for such a small plot of land. According to Richards, it was the Mayor and Town Clerk who, at a meeting, informed them of the price for each plot of land.
“Three quarters of us are self-employed and quarter is working as janitors at Government places. For doing all of that work here and living that long here, (what is being asked of us) isn’t right. It is atrocious. I never heard any Government land selling at that rate. I know $75,000, $100,000, $200,000 and $300,000, but not $700,000. I never heard of it.”
Beverly Myers, 44, has been living in the area for the past 18 years, and is one of those who initially started to develop the community.
She said even the downpayment is too high for her as a janitor and mother of five.
According to the single parent woman, she had two children attending school.
“When we come, we had to chop and build and full up the land. All we want now is for someone to come and help us with this price at the back here. They call us to the meeting and they say that the first payment is $350,000,” the woman told <<Guyana Times>>.
The single parent janitor and mother of five says it is almost impossible for them to make that payment, since she had two children attending school.
One resident related that she had moved to the land and erected a shack on a plot of land.
“I had a sheet and trampoline around the small shack. I did not even have anything to cover at first.”
The woman said she began by clearing the land and planting. Now she has a two-story house, but is still hoping for electricity and water.
Meanwhile, this newspaper was told that some of the councillors who would have been part of the decision-making body on the $700,000 cost for a 48-foot by 75-foot house lot have approved house lots for themselves just a stone’s throw away at $100,000 for 150-foot by 50-foot plots.