Minister Requeña is Prepared to Work for the South
Oscar Requeña
Oscar Requeña won the Toledo West constituency handsomely and was named the Minister of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labor, and Local Government. He is one of four ministers from the south. Minister Requeña says that the south was forgotten for twelve years under the United Democratic Party. He laid out his plans for his constituency for the next five years.
Oscar Requeña, Minister of Rural Transformation, Community Dev., Labor, and Local Government
“The infrastructure has been abandoned for the last twelve years. Really that is the first area we need to start with, just ensuring that people can access their communities. The roads are in the worst conditions. So we have repair roads. We have to repair bridges. We have to look at culverts. Public buildings in terms of hurricane shelters, they are in major disrepair. Whilst those are important I think a key has to be is to look at the economy in the rural areas. We have to look at agriculture. There is great potential in agriculture. There is great potential in agriculture in the rural areas. We have good soil, beautiful lands. We need to get our people to become more productive. We need to support them to ensure that they can derive an income from the work that they do out in agriculture. In terms of the rural areas, twelve long years under the U.D.P., five communities in my constituency still do not have water after twelve long years. Jalacte, Santa Elena, Mafredi, Crique Jute and Mabel Ha .that is a top priority on the agenda for us to ensure that in 2020, we cannot have people in our communities not having potable water. We need to address that. The whole issue of telecommunications is very important. Can you imagine in Pueblo Viejo, Santa Elena, San Benito Poite, Dolores, Oxtoxha. For people to communicate they are actually making a Tigo call which is an international call within Belize. We need to look at look at the whole issue of internet and telephone services for our community.”
