THE shipping industry of Guyana is being encouraged to tap into a much needed facility offered by GAICO, a company which is in the business of dredging. The company acquired its first dredging machine in 2012 and has from then to now been conducting several dredging activities for big companies, mainly in Georgetown.

Yesterday, the company noted that with the need for continuous dredging of the Demerara River estuary and along the many private wharves along the port, the service offered by the company is ideal to alleviating the problem.
The company is also touting the idea of encouraging the business community and other government-run operations which deal with the wharves to utilise its service given the rising operation cost associated with wharf operations.
Gaico’s dredging services aims to optimize on freight rate by allowing for larger vessels to enter the Demerara channel, now restricted due to the low draft currently existing in the channel. The company also pointed to the continued nagging of the Shipping Association of Guyana which has been calling for a deep water port and the need for continuous dredging of the Demerara River channel.
According to the company, it currently has suction cutter dredge and a few super long excavators, along with a tug and barge. The company also now has at its disposal the capacity to dredge in several areas.
Those areas are outfalls, wharves, channels and conservancies. Gaico also boasts of the ability of clearing outfalls and executing land reclamation by pumping back 4000 feet on land.
Already for last year, the company was able to reclaim a large mud flat at the back of the Guyana Oil Company and currently provides the services of backhoe and suction cutter head dredging. There was also the dredging of wharves operated by the Guyana Power and Light, National Milling Company, Guyana Oil Company and Guyana National Shipping Cooperation among others.
At the moment, the dredging company is increasing its fleet of dredging equipment with a trailing suction hopper dredge which will allow them to conduct dredging in larger scale.