Over the coming days, several vulnerable areas within the West Bank Demerara community of Lust-en- Rust will be outfitted with solar street lamps. Earlier today, Mr. Komal Singh of GAICO Construction and General Service Inc. handed over 20 street lamps, valued at $10,000 UDS, to Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Ms. Susan Rodrigues. That donation was matched with an additional 10 lamps from the Managing Director of La Rose Electrical Supplies and Construction Services, Mr. Quacy La Rose.

During a visit last week to the community, residents told Minster Rodrigues, the lack of street lighting poses a great security risk to life and property.

“When I was here last week, some women complained that because of the condition of the roads, taxi drivers refuse to take them to their exact destination and they are fearful of walking these streets because of poor lighting and the robberies in their community,”.

The Minister said she welcomes both donations as they will serve the community significantly in terms of alleviating the security risk to a great extent.

La Rose Electrical will spearhead the installation process for the street lamps over the coming days. According to Mr. La Rose given the high incidents of theft with street lamps, his company will be engraving a distinct mark of ownership on each lamp.

“These lamps will carry a distinct mark, showing that they are property of the Central Housing and Planning Authority, so if we find them at any other location we will know that they were illegally removed and placed at that location,” La Rose explained.

Additionally, GAICO construction has commenced grading and leveling of some key access roads within the community. Singh said he is familiar with the scheme and deplorable states of some of the main access roads. The roads that are being graded were identified by the Ministry’s Project Department.

“We are pleased to work with CHPA to bring immediate relief to residents, the roads were in a deplorable state with potholes, and so what we did was grade these roads to provide some ease of access to residents,” Singh said. According to Singh, this is the first of more collaboration to come as his company will continue to give support to other government agencies as they seek to bring relief to citizens in every sector.