Guyana to be remapped for better land management, mineral location

Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 December 2018, 15:15 by Denis Chabrol

The Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) has begun plans to map Guyana properly for the first time since the 1960s to assist government and the private sector about land use and mineral deposits, GLSC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Trevor Benn said.

Benn said Region One (Barima-Waini) would be the firs to be mapped, a process that could take at least nine to 10 months.

He said the mapping of Guyana is a four-year project after which the database would be continuously updated.

“We will begin work on this, this year, starting with Region One. This is coming at a cost of over $200M,” he was quoted by government’s Department of Public Information (DPI) as saying.

Additionally, Benn said the commission has received estimates for the overall remapping of the country. According to him, estimates from international suppliers have been received and range from “£20M ($5,277,906,928.82 GYD) to US $79M ($16,509,420,000 GYD)”.

The Commissioner said the importance of good base maps and generally updated maps cannot be overstated. He highlighted that work has commenced on the development of the land parcel database for Regions 2, 3 and 7 with the expectation that this will be taken “across the rest of the regions in the coming years.”

“This is an important aspect in the management of all lands in Guyana since ultimately, a completed land information system enables the generation of accurate and important land statistics,” Benn explained.

He added that this would aid data-driven development decisions and increase the efficiency in land management.

The land parcel database involves geo-referencing of survey plans to determine which areas have been surveyed, which have not and which are vacant.

Last month, a British Virgin Islands-registered company AMTEC Resources Management Ltd. dispatched its Executive Vice President, Simon Tattersall, to hold talks with a number of Guyana government agencies on the importance of mapping the country digitally.

AMTEC, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, says it has worked in Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Yemen, Botswana, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Zaire and Somalia. The company says it has also done mapping in the United Kingdom, Canada, Bolivia, and Costa Rica.