Drainage, security concerns affecting city residents will be addressed -President Ali

Poor drainage and irrigation, the absence of street lights and the need for recreational facilities are among the major issues affecting residents of Kitty and Lamaha Gardens in Georgetown.

And President Dr Irfaan Ali has assured residents that their concerns will be addressed within the next month.

The President made the commitment on Tuesday during impromptu visits to the communities.

“…I am living in D’Andrade Street (Kitty). Half of D’Andrade Street has been fixed. Where we are living its lower and as soon as the rain falls, there is a lot of water and we don’t have no proper drainage and stuff like that,” one resident expressed.

Another resident shared “…the alleyways in the city is very bad. We need that to be fixed as soon as possible.”

The President has embarked on a mission to visit communities across the country where he will meet and interact with residents directly and determine how regional leaders can be integrated to have their issues addressed.

The move, the President said is part of his plan to demonstrate a new era of development which involves leaders at the community level.

“Our interest here…is to make your lives better. Is to bring improvement to every community, every household and make people life better,” Dr Ali said.

“That is my concern. How can we work with you…to ensure you have a better standard of living and that is the only concern,” he added.

The Head of State also told the residents of plans to roll out a number of programmes across the country next year which will benefit every community.

“…I have already committed that we are going to start a programme to light every post across the country. Every single community, every single street because I know how significant it is in solving crime and preventing crime,” President Ali stated.

“We are also going to have every community on the Safe Country Programme…In every community we will have the expansion of the camera system to be integrated with the national camera network,” he said.

The visit is the first of a series which President Ali said he will be conducting in communities across the country as part of his commitment made during the Local Government elections campaign.

“…One of the things about development is the macro things at the macro level are transformational in a sense that they create the type of shift in the economy and opportunities at the macro level but sometimes at the community level you need to do a lot of work also to enhance the living conditions and the standards at the community level,” the President explained.

The President was accompanied by newly elected constituency representative, Alfonso De Armas and a team from the Ministry of Public Works headed by Minister Deodat Indar.