Persaud provides geotechnical report as requested by Opposition
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud last Thursday presented the Geotechnical Report of the Northern Relief Channel being constructed at Hope/Dochfour on the East Coast of Demerara in response to a question from the Opposition benches.
During the sitting of the National Assembly, Sheila Holder of the Alliance for Change (AFC) asked Minister Persaud whether he will make the geotechnical report for the alignment of the Hope Canal available, in light of the Government’s stated willingness to embrace transparency and accountability.
“In recognition of the government’s willingness to embrace transparency and accountability, I hereby provide the geotechnical results undertaken as part of the engineering design for East Demerara Water Conservancy Northern Relief Channel at Hope/Dochfour, East Coast Demerara, Region No. 4,” said the Minister in response.
Holder further asked the Minister whether the structural drawings have been done for the four door sluice across the conservancy dam and for the four door sluice with spill weir. “If so, how soon can AFC get access to copies of them?,” she asked.
In response, the Minister said, “I wish to state that the contracted consultant, CEMCO/SRKN’gineering Joint Venture, in Association with Mott Mac Donald, recommended that a three door sluice be constructed on inlet at the conservancy end of the new relief channel and an eight door high sill sluice be constructed on the outlet at the seawall and canal interface.”
He said that the consultant for the project has prepared structural drawings for the recommended structures and these were circulated in the National Assembly in the form of compact discs.
The project, which commenced on October 1, 2010, has been given a 24-month timeline for completion and will cost US$15M, according to information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture. The rationale for the project is said to be the relief of the East Demerara Water Conservancy through a northern channel which will obviate the need for the deliberate flooding of the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks as a means of protecting the lower East Coast, according to the ministry.
The Government had said that the venture is economically and technically sound and that no initiative taken to protect citizens is too expensive, although it might be initially difficult to finance.
During the commencement ceremony held at Flagstaff on October 1, 2010, President Bharrat Jagdeo said, “I remember, as a young minister visiting with Cheddi Jagan, and I have seen the hardships that people who live in these communities have faced because of flooding and with no possibility of changing that circumstance in the long run because there was no solution.”
“If these dams are threatened, then we don’t have a choice, we have to release the water. If you don’t release the water, then the damage could become catastrophic. The dams could break and then you can’t control it. [It would] flood the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary area…it would flood the East Coast [of Demerara], it would flood Georgetown…with very little possibility of remedying that,” President Jagdeo had said.