$3B project moving apace…
‘The project, expected to be completed by June next year, will cost about $3B and will mean cuts in budgetary allocations for community roads and other schemes’
‘A study lasting about a month will be done to establish the design parameters of the channel which will continuously release water from the storage basin to the Atlantic – President Jagdeo

THE six-and-a-half miles long canal to be cut through Hope to ease pressure on the dam of the massive East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) will be done by a private contractor, President Bharrat Jagdeo announced yesterday.

He told reporters a study lasting about a month will be done to establish the design parameters of the channel which will continuously release water from the storage basin to the Atlantic.

The project, expected to be completed by June next year, will cost about $3B and will mean cuts in budgetary allocations for community roads and other schemes.

“There is simply no choice”, Mr. Jagdeo said at a press conference at the Office of the President, adding that the government has to find the money this year to build the channel.

Construction is billed to start in six months and the project will include two huge sluices at either end of the new canal and bridges, he said.

“I want a good international engineering firm to come in to do the study”, he said.

He said if the channel is well-designed, it will allow the continuous discharge of water from the 100 square miles basin into the Atlantic.

The EDWC dam is often threatened and the water level in the basin yesterday was close to its maximum, he said.

He said waiting on fortune to keep the conservancy level manageable is untenable and an outlet to the Atlantic has to be cut to halt the repeated catastrophe that hits farmers, particularly in Mahaica, Mahaicony and Abary, when water from the EDWC is released through the Maduni Creek.

Mr. Jagdeo noted that Guyana will continue to face handling the changed weather pattern, recalling the cost of adaptation for Regions Four and Five alone has been estimated at about US$400M.

“Clearly, we will not be able to carry that quantum of expenditure from our budget and luckily it’s phased over a period and we have to look at the most critical things that need to be done and try to find the money for those”, he said.

According to the President, the drainage system on the East Coast Demerara has to be better integrated since some villages are lower than others and there has to be a more rapid outflow of accumulated water.

He said people in low-lying villages should also observe the building code by putting up houses on stilts or raising the foundation of flat houses.

He said more pumps and kokers are also needed to help bring greater relief to coastal villages.

The decision to cut the new channel to the Atlantic was announced Monday by the President during a tour of parts of Mahaica, Mahaicony and the Abary which are under water released from the storage basin to help prevent the conservancy embankment from collapsing.

Officials said the level in the storage basin rose beyond a manageable level because of persistent record heavy rain since last month and excess water had to be released through the Maduni Creek to preserve the earthen dam.

That discharge has left farmers and others in the prime agriculture region under water and the President toured the area Monday with a team of ministers and other high level officials.

Opening a new outlet from the EDWC directly to the Atlantic has been on the drawing board among other long-term investments for the drainage and irrigation sector.

But it has been given fresh impetus with the heavy toll exacted on crops and livestock farmers by discharging overflow from the EDWC through the Maduni Creek, the President indicated.

During a tour last month of drainage pumps at Liliendaal, about four miles east of Georgetown, he said cutting another outlet channel for the EDWC will complement the release of water through the outfalls to the Demerara River at Cunha and Land of Canaan.

The additional outfalls will reduce the pressure of having to release water from the conservancy into the Mahaica and Mahaicony Rivers, he told reporters.

He said the government of Japan is considering a US$40M loan for the sector and longer term investments include building the second phase of the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary (MMA) scheme, strengthening sea defences, putting in between 30 and 40 sluices to drain water by gravity flow, buying more pumps and raising the embankment of the EDWC.

He said the government is looking for short-term measures that could provide relief to citizens and the canal through Hope is one of these.

He, however, said that the allocation of funds to construct the canal means some other infrastructure programmes will be put on hold as the resources available to the government are limited.

He noted that the EDWC has to be kept in good shape and releasing water through the Maduni was unavoidable, even though the impact on people in Mahaica, Mahaicony and the Abary has been tremendous.

Excess water puts a strain on the earthen dams of the basin and any significant burst can mean devastation in many parts of East Coast and Georgetown.

If the water level is too low, sections of the dam may collapse inwards, posing huge problems for people, officials said.

The President explained that prior to the current rainy season, the level of the conservancy was eased to 52 GD (Georgetown Datum) but because of the amount of rainfall, it rose to 59 GD and this had endangered the embankment.