The Ministry of Housing and Water has signed a contract totaling $13M to kick-start the construction of ten homes in Region One (Barima-Waini).
The contracts were presented to Chairman of the Community Development Council (CDC), Mr. Sherman Lewis, during an outreach at the Mabaruma Learning and Resource Centre on Saturday.
This contract will see the construction of the first ten wooden elevated homes under the Hinterland Housing Programme at Smith Creek, Region One.
Housing Minister, Collin Croal stated that the contract signing is the fulfilment of President Dr. Irfaan Ali’s commitment to resolving issues in the community, which was made during a visit to the area in 2019, while on the 2020 elections campaign trail.
“As a result of that, today we have three contracts that will be signed; one for the supply of labour that will come from the community; one is for the supply of sand and stone and one is for the supply of the timber,” the Minister said.
The environment of Smith Creek, Croal said, cannot continue exist as it is. “We will be making interventions to ensure that they have a proper source of water and that we eliminate some of the health and other concerns.”
Each home is expected to have three bedrooms and measure approximately 20x25ft. The community has approximately 64 households.
However, Lewis noted that through community consultations, the most vulnerable persons will benefit from the programme.
During the National Toshaos Council Conference held in January of this year, Croal had announced that some 300 families of hinterland communities in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine, are set to benefit from the $750 million hinterland housing programme.
Through the programme one hundred (100) housing units are expected to constructed.
The minister had also explained that the programme mirrored the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded Sustainable Housing for the Hinterland Programme that was implemented previously by the CH&PA under the leadership of President Irfaan Ali when he served as Housing Minister.
