(GINA) President Bharrat Jagdeo brought encouragement to residents of the Mahaicony Creek recently after announcing that he intends to repair the main access road which he described as atrocious.

The Head of State was required to travel through the road which runs parallel to the Mahaicony Creek, as he met farmers at Mora Point on April 11.

Repairs to the road were long in the making and President Jagdeo highlighted the need to find a faster solution to such a project rather than the long process of tendering and evaluation.

“We have to have a better way of working faster, especially when you have projects of a critical nature. That road serves a lot of people in this community so we will probably have to take over the road and get it done quickly,” President Jagdeo said.

He envisages the cost of the project to be somewhere in the vicinity of $50M and noted that it will require a lot more work than the plan outlined by the Region Five administration.

Repairs to the road were also seen as necessary given the magnitude of work needed under the Mahaica/Mahaicony and Abary (MMA) works project.

The Mahaica /Mahaicony Abary/Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) are at present undertaking crucial works which form part of the Ministry of Agriculture’s drainage and irrigation plan.

Some of these plans emanated from a visit by President Jagdeo and Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud during the December/January rainy season.

The drainage agencies are placing special emphasis on the works which are critical to be implemented in order to have the system functioning at maximum capacity for the upcoming May/June rainy season.

These include the construction of a parallel canal embankment and a three-door discharge sluice along the Mahaicony River from Hyde Park to Retrieve, raising of the right bank of the Mahaicony River, as well as the right and left banks of the Mahaica River and construction of a flood embankment along Industry and Manuel Canals in the Mahaica River.

In addition, as promised by President Jagdeo, an excavator has been deployed in the Abary River to assist farmers to emploder farmlands in anticipation of the upcoming May/June rainy season