THE National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) of the Agriculture Ministry and the Sea Defence Department of the Ministry of Public Works are on alert and will try to take mitigating actions to deal with any possible flooding in light of the rainy season.
However, Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy advised that this period of heavy downpours poses no serious threat to most farmers.
In an interview with the media, he maintained that, as was forecast, the month of July will experience fairly normal weather conditions which will see some amount of rain and dry periods.
“Last night’s and today’s weather is of significance. Whilst we have had a lot of rain, in some parts of the country up to 100 millimetres over the last 24 hours, it has not caused much problems. In fact, to some farmers the rain is a good thing,” Ramsammy told reporters yesterday.
He said heavy rainfall is a good thing at this time because rice farmers are all in the middle of preparing land and ensuring the second crop is successful in this regard.
The Minister said some of the second crop rice is already in the fifth and sixth weeks. In some places like Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) and Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), over 90 percent of the cultivable lands are under cultivation for second crop.

LITTLE BEHIND
Ramsammy said, although there is much progress in those areas, Regions Five (Mahaica/Berbice) and Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) are little behind.
“They are 40 percent and 60 percent behind in their cultivation into the second crop,” he pointed out.
The Minister said the first crop was one of the largest in the history of Guyana and there is still a large amount of rice to be reaped that was left over for the second crop.
This, he said, shows disharmony and, as is evident, has created a problem for some Regions during the second crop.
“We had a production equal to 206,000 tons of rice and there was still about 100 acres to be reaped and that, in itself, demonstrated a problem, because you still have rice to reap when thousands of acres are now in their fifth and sixth weeks of cultivation for the second crop,” Ramsammy stated.
He said, while the weather has been a blessing to most farmers, it has been the cause of some problems, not from the intense rainfall but from the high tides that were experienced during this period.
Overnight, the high tides have brought about overtopping of dams and some of the areas that were mainly affected included Berbice (some sections of Rosignol and New Amsterdam). This led to flash flooding in those areas, he reported.
Ramsammy said: “Particularly in Stanleytown area where farmers in a short period may have experienced over two feet of water on the ground. In areas like Soesdyke, we had some heavy wind that caused damage to buildings, some roofing and some were blown away.”
He emphasised that the main problem is not the heavy rainfall but the high tides that are likely to be higher in time. As such, citizens can expect more overtopping in various parts of the country.

POSSIBLE SCENARIOS
Ramsammy reiterated that his ministry’s Hydrometeorological Service continues to monitor the weather conditions in Guyana, and to look at possible scenarios for the upcoming period.
He reminded that the Hydrometerological Service has examined the global models and advised that they indicate the emergence of El Nino (dry) conditions by the end of summer.
“The advisory says, according to the climate model, through the Hydromet and global monitoring, it shows that July is likely to be normal or dry, 50 percent chance of being normal, with approximately 306 millimetres of rain for the whole month. That is about 12 inches and we expect rain 23 days of the month which is a small amount.”
Ramsammy said this will be a normal situation and there is a 50 percent chance that the normal condition will prevail, which will mean that the weather will not cause any major problems. There is a 40 percent possibility that the weather in July favours a more dry month than normal.
He said the country is expected to see the El Nino weather pattern being dominant in the months of August, September, October, November, December, January and February.
“With each succeeding month coming towards the end of the year, the weather conditions will favour El Nino prevailing, which are dryer conditions.”
Ramsammy said the long term forecast for the rest of July favours normal to dry conditions and the long term forecast for August to year end favours dry conditions.
There is a 40 percent probability of dry conditions in July and this will increase to 50 percent by August, meaning that all irrigation systems are working well and are prepared for the conditions to be experienced.
“We already are making sure that our irrigation pumps and canals are in working conditions,” he assured.
About the near future, Ramsammy said: “Indeed, some drought like situation will be expected, inspite of the rain we have had over the last 24 and next 24 hours.”
He said, despite the dry season expected at the end of the year, the country should not be faced with irrigation issues for farmers.

HIGH LEVELS
Having said that, though, Ramsammy said farmers must be aware that the NDIA will maintain high levels of water in the irrigation canals.
In light of this, he has appealed to farmers to desist from tampering with the D&I structures that the Ministry has put in place.
The minster said, sometimes, there is an issue where the same set of rice and cash crop farmers are depending on the very irrigation structure, and cooperation among the two is key in ensuring that nothing goes wrong in this regard.
“The rice farmers need water and cash crop farmers need dry conditions and, sometimes, the same set of farmers are relying on the same structure…persons tend to take things in their own hands and then it creates a problem. I am appealing to the farmers to cooperate with us during this period,” he said.
The Minister said, over the last several days, people have been interfering with these structures and that has resulted in the Ministry expending large sums of money to fix the created problems.