-satisfied with pace of work
GOVERNMENT embarked on the US$15M Hope Canal, or the Northern Relief Channel at the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC), as it believes that this major undertaking will be the answer to the flooding experienced in the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary areas, annually during the rainy periods.
And as work progresses on the four-component project, President Donald Ramotar, accompanied by Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Lionel Wordsworth yesterday checked on three of the sections.
The Head of State inspected work currently ongoing at the over 10-kilometer channel from the EDWC, the eight-door sluice, and the bridge which will link the conservancy and the sluice. At the latter, pile driving is being done.
The President told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that he was pleased to have had the opportunity to visit the areas. He described the undertaking as ‘massive, by any yardstick’ and expressed confidence that on completion, the project would fulfill its purpose of relieving flooding in the MMA farming areas.
“This will be a great relief to the farming communities along the way, and I think it will serve its purpose for what we have it here to do,” he said.
President Ramotar also expressed confidence that the works at the different sites, having been progressing smoothly, would be completed by the project’s 2013 deadline.
Minister Ramsammy told GINA that the construction of the Hope Canal is something that all Guyana should be proud of, particularly because most of the work is being done by Guyanese.
A large percentage of the work at the project is being carried out by the ministry’s young engineers, Minister Ramsammy said. Consultants are on the job at the Hope Canal sites, but the ministry’s engineers are working along with the consultants, and this includes young female engineers. He said this is part of the ministry’s objective, to “build the capacity for our own engineers so in the future, when we do these (projects), we don’t spend a lot of money for expensive consultants.”
The relief channel is being excavated by the NDIA. Minister Ramsammy said that the cost of the entire project would have been about $3B had not the ministry, through the NDIA, taken the initiative to undertake the digging itself, thereby reducing the cost of the project significantly.
The Agriculture Minister said that had government contracted the canal construction, it would have cost in excess of $1B. “We have reduced that cost to just $220M, so we are doing this at just a quarter of the cost of the channel itself,” he said.
NDIA would have also procured and provided onsite delivery of the steel sheet piles that are laid on the foundation of the structures, Wordsworth disclosed, in a further attempt to cut cost.
Wordsworth said that the outfall sluice is ahead of schedule by two percent, while the bridge and the construction of the canal remain on schedule. He said that 26 percent of the canal has been completed.
The fourth component of the project, the construction of the conservancy head regulator, comprising three gates, is being constructed closer to the conservancy and the area is ‘swampy and pegassy’, making it difficult to manouver the machinery and equipment and to take construction material on the site, the NDIA, CEO said.
He assured, however, that focus is being placed on all aspects of the project, towards enabling its timely completion, and that all the major aspects to move the project forward rapidly are in place.
BK International, DIPCON Engineering, and Courtney Benn Contracting Services were granted the contracts for the other three components. (GINA)