…says agriculture minister
DESPITE the weather being less than optimal, the Ministry of Agriculture is pressing ahead with work on the Hope/Dochfour Northern Relief Channel, focusing on the area north of the Crown Dam until it is suitable for the more southerly locations to accommodate heavy equipment. Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and a team of officers from the ministry and related agencies visited the site yesterday to inspect the ongoing works. The $3 billion project, which had its formal commencement on October 1, 2010, has a timeline of 18 months for completion.
Further, he announced that tenders will be out soon for the construction of sluices and other infrastructure for the project.
“As you can see, the work is proceeding very extensively,” said the minister. “This is the section from the Crown Dam to the public road. The entire length of the canal is 10.3 kilometres and this is the front half of the canal. Work started on February 5 and at least two kilometres have been cleared, which is substantial,” Persaud told reporters.
“Once we establish the 300 feet width, then the actual digging will start,” he said, pointing out ongoing work to clear the path on both sides of the canal. “So we have several pieces of equipment deployed at the front here. We also have a number of people deployed and ready to work at the back but we cannot proceed at the back as yet because we are still in the La Nina (weather) condition and it is always difficult to mobilise and demobilise. So, for now, the effort is to concentrate on the front half of the canal which the team is working on,” the minister said.
He said government will, from this weekend, launch the tenders for the structures, inclusive of sluices, outfalls, and a 300-foot bridge where the canal crosses the East Coast public road.
“I just wanted the public, through you [the media], to see that the work is proceeding,” he said, reflecting on what he described as sound technical work that informed the decision to forge ahead with the project.
“This project will have immense value in terms of adapting to climate change, preventing widespread flooding that can occur if the East Demerara Water Conservancy breaks, or when it is under stress and you have to release water into the Mahaica/Mahaicony areas, as well as reduce the vulnerability of the East Coast,” said Persaud.
He said that should the conservancy dam give way, it would be catastrophic for the entire East Coast. “This relief channel will provide that long-term security and assurance that we will be able to manage the effects of climate change and also allow us to store much more water. For me, this project is not only about evacuating water, but also giving us much more [storage capacity] for agriculture,” Minister Persaud said.
He said that in the longer term “perhaps we could look at a water treatment [facility] here to supply potable water for the East Coast community.” According to the minister, this is one of the many current and future benefits of the project.
“This project is not about today; it is one that looks at the long term and that is why we have to stop seeing the tree and look at the forest. We need to look at these development interventions in that wider context of long-term planning and development, taking care of not only the risks of today, but future risks,” he said. “We must plan for future risk and be prepared to capitalise on the opportunities or we will always be left behind,” the Agriculture Minister posited.
Persaud said the government will save nearly $1 billion by doing the land clearing and other works for the project without contracting it out. “If we had contracted this, it would have put another billion on the project. Last year we bought 14 excavators, we have a bulldozer…it is good use of money, good planning. While we say that the total cost of the project is about $3 billion, in actual fact, how much we will spend will be less than the $3 billion,” said Persaud.
He noted, too, that while the timeline for the project completion is 18 months, “we have to compensate in terms of the weather. The weather will impinge on the work we do beyond the Crown Dam. But for this area, the weather will not affect us that much,” he said.
Persaud explained that the timber mats and geo-textile material have already been procured for work at the conservancy end of the project. However, he noted that because of the rains, the area must be drained before the materials can be used, thereby allowing  the use of the heavy equipment needed for the land clearing.
The minister said that for the land-clearing component, there is a consultancy firm, CEMCO, which will ensure that the work is done to specification. “Whilst we are doing the work, we ourselves are not doing quality control,” he said. “We also want to assure the public that whatever we do fits the design standard, even when we are doing it ourselves. We are putting these layers of support in place because we give a lot of importance to this project,” he said.
He added that the cost of the project is what is estimated that Guyana could lose in one year in terms of agricultural loss due to the floods. “From an economic standpoint, this project can pay for itself by preventing a disaster in one year, because it is about US$15 million that the country loses if there is one massive flood,” the minister said.
He said the government has already paid out compensation in excess of $110 million to some 40 farmers, some of whom were even on government reserves. “We have looked at the human side of it, people have been planting here for many years and we are also looking for alternative lands [for them],” said the minister.

PULL QUOTE:
“This project is not about today; it is one that looks at the long-term and that is why we have to stop seeing the tree and look at the forest. We need to look at these development interventions in that wider context of long-term planning and development, taking care of not only the risks of today, but future risks.We must plan for future risk and be prepared to capitalise on the opportunities or we will always be left behind.” – Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud