PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has assured the nation that his Government is taking the issue of the El Nino phenomenon seriously.
He gave the assurance at a meeting with stakeholders yesterday at Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, in Kingston, Georgetown, to discuss related Government interventions through the Ministry of Agriculture and other agencies.
“It is a problem that is affecting not just Guyana but the entire Caribbean,” he pointed out, citing the situation in Jamaica.
“We, first of all, need to know the situation and I think that is the purpose of the presentations and I want to congratulate the Ministers who organised this,”he said.
President Jagdeo said persons need to understand “what we have done, so far and what is required of us to get over this difficult period.”
“And difficult it will be. We don’t have a clue when rain will come and anyone who tells you differently is less than truthful. So we have to pretend as though this would last for a very long time in the future and take actions in keeping with that approach,” he stated.
The Head of State said it will require some tough actions and sacrifices on the part of citizens.
“Because conserving water, careful use of water and better management of water will all be very important lessons we would have to learn and learn quickly in this period,” he cautioned.
President Jagdeo noted that, for most of the recent history, “we have had the problem of too much water and maybe we became a little bit complacent, because the focus was on getting rid of water off the land.
“Now we are faced with a totally different situation – not enough water,” he observed.
President Jagdeo said the ministries are working with the communities.
“Our first priority, of course, has to be people getting water to drink. That is the main priority and then, of course, to sustain economic activities, because economic activities are very vital to livelihood.”
He announced that he will be visiting Essequibo this weekend and, probably, some of the other regions “to get a better feel on the ground as to what is happening.”
“The Ministry of Agriculture and the other agencies that are involved – Housing and Water – will get the full support of the Government to interact and to take measures, however limited they are, because you can dig canals, you can do a whole range of things but, if you don’t have a source of water, it doesn’t make sense,” he reminded.

Adequate funding
President Jagdeo said the measures may be limited but they “will receive adequate funding to get us through this period.”
He added: “I just wanted to thank all of you, too, for coming here. This is vital. This is a national effort that we have to work on together.
“I think this is an indication of what we will face in the future. We are already facing it and it is going to get worse as global temperature increases,” he warned.
“The variability of weather – you can move from one extreme to the other extreme – one year too much water and another year drought.
“So we have to start preparing and this is why the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is not just about saving the world, it is about responding at the national level to the challenges we will face,” he emphasised.
The President said the Government has to start looking at a series of infrastructure plus policies that would promote drought resistant and water resistant crops and such.
“Luckily, Guyana is in the forefront of this but that doesn’t mean that we are not going to be affected too, and it requires significant sums of money,” he said.
Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud told the same forum the reason for the meeting is for the key players to “get a full picture of what is taking place” and engage persons in getting additional suggestions and feedback.
He said, if not properly planned for, the weather can have a devastating impact on agriculture and even in terms of general living conditions.
Persaud said “in Guyana’s situation, it is very vulnerable and, at this point in time, if we estimate the potential damage that the current El Nino can have on sugar, livestock and other crops, it is looking at cost in the vicinity of $3.5 billion.”
He said water management is very crucial in terms of managing and underscored how important this valuable resource is for the agriculture sector.
Persaud said, because the cultivation areas have been expanded “we are much more vulnerable”.
A task force, inclusive of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) was formed last August to assess the El Nino conditions and implement interventions to ensure that farmers are not adversely affected and, additionally, a special committee was established to look at the hinterland and several interventions have been made, thus far, he indicated.
It is expected that, during February to early April, the current trends of reduction in rainfall is likely to continue over Guyana, with higher probabilities of more dry conditions continuing in the southern most part of Guyana.
Other Government functionaries present included Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali and Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands) Chairman, Mr. Julius Faerber.
Various presentations were made by different agencies involved in coping with the weather, including Acting NDIA Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lionel Wordsworth and Chief Hydromet Officer, Ms. Bhaleka Suelall.