It is most encouraging news that the crucial Hope Canal project is moving apace and is actually 50% complete, which makes it very likely to be completed by its May/June 2013 schedule.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, Mr. Lionel Wordsworth, pointed out that the works on the canal were 30% completed; works on the bridge on the highway were 11% completed; and works on the outfall channel were nine percent completed.
He explained that critical sections of the work are now beginning, such as channel-digging between the Crown Dam and the Conservancy, which measures about 3.3 kilometres. He pointed out that once that is finished, the canal would be linked with the recently completed other section stretching from the public road to the Crown Dam and measuring just about seven kilometres.
The area has been excavated and profiled, and materials to construct the embankments on both sides of the canal have already been stockpiled. The soil the machines have to operate on is very difficult to navigate and the machines consequently have to operate on mats, which take some time to handle and re-handle.
Following our worst natural disaster, the Great Flood of 2004, one of the recommendations of experts who came here under the auspices of the UN, was the construction of an outflow channel from the East Demerara Water Conservancy to the Atlantic. The government had promised to implement this recommendation to bring much relief to the residents of the Mahaica/Mahaicony communities who suffer great agony every time there is excessive rainfall, because of the inevitable discharge of excess water from the conservancy.
The government is delivering on its promise but not before the very many “experts” who dubbed the project an ill-conceived, ill-designed and unfeasible project. This is  expected as there is a group of persons among us who seem to specialise in castigating and criticising any major project the government embarks upon,-no matter how positive it may be.
Up to now many farming families have not fully recovered from the devastation of the 2004 flood and therefore it is only wise that everything possible should be done to bring an end to the suffering of residents in the communities in the vicinity of the conservancy in what is almost an annual feature.
Most of the residents in these communities depend on farming for their livelihoods and when their crops are destroyed as a result of the discharge of excess water from the conservancy, it means the families of the affected farmers will experience great hardship., because not only would they have lost their crops and cash, but they would still have to find financial and other resources to begin a new crop.
At the same time, food supply and food security comes under threat as the communities of Mahaica and Mahaicony are major producers of rice and cash crops and are major suppliers to the markets in Georgetown and nearby villages.
Therefore, any government worth its salt and is genuinely concerned about the livelihoods of its people and food production would have taken the step that this government has embarked upon to ensure that a medium- term solution is found to the recurrent flooding in Mahaica/Mhaicony.
If the government had sat on its laurels and did not take a decisive step in bringing an end to the suffering of the people it would have been scathingly criticised. Now it is doing something very positive to alleviate a serious problem of the people it is still being criticised.
But it is typical Guyanese life: “If you do you are damned and if you don’t you are damned.”