Housing Minister outlines plans for 2022 - More house lots, access to potable & treated water

Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal during the 2022 Budget debates says there are measures in place that will see all Guyanese benefitting.

Minister of Housing & Water Collin Croal.

He revealed that during last year, more than 10,000 house lots and almost 1500 land titles were distributed.

“Mr. Speaker budget 2022 will allow the ministry of housing and water to provide more house lots and more houses to more citizens who are waiting to build their own homes. The banks will for the first time offer the lowest mortgage rates in the history of our country,”

he told the National Assembly.

Additionally, communities in hinterland regions will now have access to potable water for the first time, as the ministry intends to close the gap in access to potable water supply within the hinterland and riverain communities.

"These communities only have a 56% access to improved water supply. We intend to move this to 100% within this planning cycle. To achieve this, Government has committed to financing some $3.5 billion in capital investment during this period through the drilling of new wells, the use of surface water where available and water harvesting which will benefit more than 49,000 hinterland and riverain communities,"

the housing minister explained. The ministry is also aiming to expand treated water to households on the coastland.

“GWI has already completed the identification of areas for a number of new water treatment plant, these include Walton Hall to Charity in Region 2, Wakenaam and Leguan, Bush Lot and Tain to No. 50 Village. This will increase the water coverage to 63% by the end of this year on the coastal population,"

Minister Croal pointed out. The minister notes too that 750 squatters were regularized in regions 4 and 5 while 59 persons were relocated from governments land reserves.

"And in some cases, when it is necessary, we even compensated. Mr. Speaker, in the 5 years of the coalition government, they relocated only 20 families from Broadstreet,"

the Minister said. $12.4 billion has been allocated for the housing sector and $4.9 billion to improve the water sector in the 2022 Budget.