Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 11, 2014 News
…but $9B for Housing approved
Despite accusations of ‘discrimination’ by the Government, the allocations for the Ministry of Housing and Water, to the tune of almost $9B were approved last evening in the National Assembly.
Housing and Water Minister Irfaan Ali, who fielded questions from members of the opposition, was grilled over the inclusion of a new capital programme called Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP) as well as the Community Roads Improvement Project (CRIP).
The Minister told the House that the project is wrapping up and was funded through a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and as a result the Ministry has created as an offshoot, the CIIP, which will be executed by the unit that managed its predecessor.
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Basil Williams, charged that government was discriminatory in the way it handled the CRIP project. He alluded to the fact that the majority of roads undertaken under that project were done in primarily government stronghold areas, while villages along the East Coast Demerara not known to support the ruling administration are not being addressed.
The relevance of the $484M CIIP programme was also questioned, given that many of the objectives, according to the opposition members, should be done either by Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), the Ministry of Public Works or the Ministry of Local Government.
According to the Minster, the project was designed following consultations which saw communities complaining about issues such as access to burial grounds and unusable community playfields among others and a such those matters can be addressed through these.
The Minister said that it is expected that the CIIP project will see the creation of some 1,500 jobs for persons of varying skills.
Questioned as to why more than $1B was allocated for the CRIP since it is finished, the Minister explained that the money will be used to take care of projects that have rolled over, as well as for the payment of retention among other expenditure.
As it relates to the CIIP, the Minister was asked to respond to why there was not a bottom-up approach, whereby the communities would be empowered to take care of their needs as well as build capacity, rather than to have the Ministry undertake the project.
The Minister explained that under the CRIP “we had community training in management and maintenances and we built capacity in the NDC, so part of the programme is to build that capacity and we will continue.”
Alliance For Change’s Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo, during his budget debate presentation had shown the Members of the House, two bottles of water from the Berbice area which were brown in colour and as such his colleague Member of Parliament, Dr Veerasammy Ramayya queried what the plan was for this year especially for that area.
According to the Minister the water treatment plant at Rose Hall is functioning “but there will be an upgrade this year.”
Under the Coastal Water Supply programme, just over $1.1B was allocated and approved, while another $3.1B was approved for the Infrastructural Development and Building project and some $532M was approved for the Georgetown Sanitation Improvement Programme among other capital expenditures.
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