MINISTER within the Ministry of Agriculture, Ali Baksh, has expressed dissatisfaction with the pace at which works are progressing on the Grove/Diamond sluice on the East Bank Demerara. During a visit to the site on Thursday last, he said it is imperative that the work is completed as scheduled to avoid flooding in the area.
“I think the way we are seeing it, actually half the time has already finished and half the work is not completed, I’m worried because the most important part of the work is still left to be done and I’m worried about the May/June; as I said the residents are also very much worried because they have been coming to my office and they have been reporting very often about the slow pace of work.”
Baksh has called on the contractors and the consultant who are working along with each other to do make an extra effort towards the speedy completion of the new sluice and the rehabilitation of previous Diamond /Grove sluice.
He said a new sluice is being constructed as the old one is being rehabilitated and revetment works are ongoing to a tune of $49M.
Works started six months ago and the duration for the contract is one year.
“We are rehabilitating the old one as you can see and were also building a new one. This costs 49 million dollars; work is progressing,[but] at this moment it’s a little slow. We are talking to the consultant and also the contractor and we hope that they will be able to pick up because the May/June rain is here on us and this is a very venerable area.”
He said that the reason for a new and additional sluice is because of the extension in the area between the Grove /Diamond and the new scheme. “Therefore, you have[a] bigger area where you have more volumes of water in the bigger area, especially in the residential area,” He said.
This project is  a result of a visit by Baksh, Chief Executive Officer of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, Lionel Wordsworth and Member of Parliament Neil Kumar to the area while it was inundated.
The team made recommendations for works to be done on the sluice.