Berbice: Yesterday some 70 500-gallon plastic water tanks were handed over to residents in rural communities who depend heavily on rain or a river as the only source of water.
The donation coincided with World Water Day. The recipients were from the East Canje communities of Speculation and New Forest and one section of Kortberaad, on the eastern bank of the Berbice River where the primary sources of water for drinking, and other domestic use are the Canje or Berbice rivers respectively or rainfall.
The objective of the project, conceived by Presidential Advisor on Empowerment, Odinga Lumumba, and executed through the groundwork of Member of Parliament, Faizal Jaffarally, and Regional Chairman, David Armogan, is to allow residents to trap and store rain or potable water.
Among the recipients were many women who are confronted daily with the challenge of finding and fetching clean water for cooking, washing and drinking. Rosaline Clement, who resides at Kortberaad Old Road, said she has lived there for seven years and has been burdened with the strenuous task of fetching and storing water in metal drums about half of a mile away from her home. The woman, who cares for four children, explained that she has to use a bicycle to fetch water to and fro to fill the drums, then cover them for later use in the kitchen and drinking. She, like the many others, was grateful for the compassion shown by the Government to ease the daily pressure.
S Dwarka, 60, who has been residing in the same area in Kortberaad where there is no running water, explained she has to venture the same distance as Clement to fetch water from the yards of residents along the Public Road where there are pipelines. The elderly woman excitedly rolled her black tank away from the NCN Channel 15 compound where they were kept.
The struggle to get and store clean water is also the same across on the east bank of the Canje River in the areas of Speculation and New Forest.
A resident, Parasram Bipat, 66, disclosed that since as a young child he has drunk black water from the Canje River and occasionally rain water.
“Sometimes, the river does get nasty …when it get dry, the water get muddy and it would be very difficult to get drinking water with this tank, we could store water because it’s me and my wife alone …500 gallons is a lot for us to use.”
Bipat’s wife, Bibi, said since marriage some 41 years ago, she has resided in New Forest and has experienced how difficult a woman’s life could be with the daily hassle of fetching water. She explained that the river runs about some distance away from her house, and she has to go down there every day and dip the water with buckets, to fill the drums used to store water. According to Bibi, that has been the routine until Thursday when she and her husband came to collect the tank.
“When the river muddy, we can’t get water to drink …I would try to get the best out of the rain when tank gets in there,” she said.
In brief remarks before handing over the tanks, Lumumba highlighted the importance of small community projects that have direct impact on the lives of residents.
“The mistake Governments make sometimes is to think all we have to do is big projects …plenty roads, hydro dams, electricity, and sometimes while we do that and while that is essential, we lose the smaller things …the smaller things in communities. The bigger things are important for overall economic development, but when you go in the communities, the basic things like cleaning the drains water, so people can drink those are more critical on many occasions.”
He explained that the plan came together in October 2011 and had to be shelved due to elections. According to Lumumba, there is more in the pipeline for community development and he would be spending two days in Berbice to evaluate the effectiveness of the youth choice projects established across communities and look at other community projects that could touch lives at the grassroots.
There were also brief remarks from Regional Chairman Armogan and MP Jaffarally. Other areas to benefit from this venture are Moleson Creek and Black Bush Polder. Of the 99 tanks allocated, 15 are to be handed out to residents in Moleson Creek and 19 to Black Bush Polder residents.
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