51 landmass developed into 30,000-odd lots-Min. Rodrigues

Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Susan Rodrigues has announced that from 2020 to the end of 2023, the Government of Guyana through the central Housing and Planning Authority has developed 51 large plots of land to produce more than 30,000-odd lots.

Of that number, 40 percent of the total allocation of residential house lots went to women in keeping with the ministry’s quest to ensure that 40 percent of lands given out yearly are to women.

Green spaces, spaces for religious organizations, industrial lands, and spaces, lands for recreational spaces in communities are among the categories that make up the total amount of lots allocated for the period.

The minister made the comments during a media briefing held at the Conference Center Wednesday morning where a review of the Housing and Water sectors was shared with the members of the media.

Minister Rodrigues told the media that as part of the affordable homeownership policy of the ministry, several partnerships were entered into which saw reduced interest rates, and the removal of taxes on some building and construction materials, all of which have contributed to the increased acceptance of land allocation and ownership by members of the public.

In the area of Water supply and distribution, the ministry has been working extensively to construct new wells and efficient maintenance of the infrastructure and water treatment plans.

There is a plan to have 90 percent of treated water distributed to the coastland by 2025 according to Minister Rodrigues. 97.3 percent was given as the percentage of access to potable water, she added.

Major leaks were fixed, bank overdrafts were addressed, water subsidies to pensioners were restored, staff compliments were doubled, more coverage for distribution to treated water, and payment to contractors owed by the agency are the steps taken by Guyana Water Inc.

Rodrigues noted that with those measures, Guyana Water Inc. has now been able to bring itself from an underperforming entity to a viable and stable one.

Hinterland Water Supply has moved from 46 to 82 percent from 2020 to 2023. Of the total of 60 new wells that were dug during the corresponding period, most of those were done in the Hinterland and Riverain communities, Minister Rodrigues noted.