WHILE some farmers are complaining about the drought and shortage of irrigation water, residents of four villages on the Corentyne are complaining that over three thousand acres of rice, cash crop  and cattle farming lands are under flood water  due to the completely clogged up  state of the outfall channels serving the villages.The villages hard hit by flooding, incredibly in the middle of the current drought conditions, are Liverpool, Lancaster, Manchester and Ulverston, all within the Lancaster/Hogstye Neighborhood Democratic Council (NDC).

“The rain  fell for one day and one night last week and the drainage is  so poor that  most of the agricultural  land, even land in the residential areas are (up to yesterday) still under water,” one bemused and worried resident said.

A delegation from the four villages visited Gobin Harbhajan, representative of the Prime Minister in Region 6 and requested his support for urgent action to be taken to desilt the two channels.

The dysfunctional drainage outlets are the Alness Outfall and the Liverpool/Manchester Outfall channels.

“These two channels have been neglected. They had not been cleaned for the longest while,” the spokesman said.

“These two channels need to be cleaned urgently because if this situation is the case with the one day and one night of rain, then I fear to think what would happen in these villages  if more serious rainfall occurs, “ he said.

“We have paddy ready to be harvested but the fields are under water,” another farmer said.

He added:” I know one farmer who was forced harvest his crop under these conditions and he ended up getting a low grade for his padi. Due to this he lost a lot of money.”

He said that his paddy is nearing the harvesting stage and he hoped that prompt action is taken before he suffers a similar fate.

Following the visit to his office, Harbhajan visited the two outfalls, accompanied by representatives of the villagers and the Liaison Officer for the Ministry of Communities, Roy Corlette.

Harbhajan noted that the drainage channels were indeed in poor shape.

He said Monday that he had made an urgent request to the Drainage and Irrigation Department in Region 6 and  he was hoping for prompt action, at least by mid-week, on the clearing of the two outfall channels.
(Clifford Stanley)