Dear Editor,
The Vice-President (not the housing minister) has declared that 40,000 houses will be built during his government’s present five-year tenure. This translates to 8,000 units per year with a further breakdown to 366 houses monthly implying 22 residences per day! Really? This is both ludicrous and comical as such a feat is flawed and impractical. Such a grandiose project requires meticulous calculations instead of perfunctory planning. As an experienced real estate builder and broker in New York, I consider myself an expert in planning and design and I venture to declare that this would be another one of those failed colossal projects: Amala Falls, Surendra Hospital and Skeldon Sugar Factory stand as profound testament of poor planning.
Without any doubt, the PPP government has created the most expansive housing drive in Guyana’s history. However, the growth of new housing schemes has displayed serious anomalies and setbacks to actual development of the basic tenets of housing. The absence of zoning laws, setback measurement, open green space (rainfall will be absorbed by the soil instead of the runoff inundating the drainage system), along with recreational facilities (every 100 unit should be accompanied by 1 acre) pose dire dangers. The need for solid foundations would prevent the dreaded 4 S’s: sliding, slipping, sagging and sinking a phenomenon prevalent in today’s improper methods. The salient aspect of obtaining a simple document like a land title (transport) is costly and cumbersome – an area that the Attorney General has failed miserably.
Poor roads, sporadic garbage collection coupled with scanty water supply proliferate: the ubiquitous overhead black tanks are testimony of the litany of failures of housing. Construction in Guyana does not embrace the vicissitudes of weather patterns like the US yet the building process is almost always invariably infected with slapdash work and absentee workmen, together with the usual bribery to obtain and install all forms of meters. To succeed there must be pragmatic changes from the customary paradigm if not archaic methods. As the situation stands the project is tantamount to putting 10 pounds grocery in a 5-pound bag.
Quality building using appropriate construction materials must be the new order to realize value for money. Independent inspectors, both during construction phase and completion is essential – albeit non-existent – in the country. Sound structural houses must not be sacrificed to meet political quotas, leaving the beneficiary with defective buildings, while the contractor, most with tenebrous calculations, walks away with the profit. It’s not only about implementation, but technical and regulatory oversight. The current – and past administrations – have both displayed a proclivity to continue projects on autopilot mode.
I have offered my services for free to both present and past administrations but have never received an answer. In the final analysis, the procurement of a house lot for the ordinary worker represents a gift of a gold nugget, while the politically connected are granted the gold mine.