MINISTER within the Ministry of Agriculture, Alli Baksh, said the government is spending another $20M to rehabilitate the Hope-Friendship drainage canal in the lower Pomeroon River after farmers failed to maintain the waterway. Mr Baksh said government several years ago had spent some $53M through the rural community support services programme to excavate the main drainage canal which was left abandoned for more than 20 years by the PNC Government.
The minister said farmers had promised to maintain the waterways but failed to do so.
Minister Baksh, in the company of Regional Chairman, Parmanand Persaud, Vice Chairman, Mr Vishnu Samaroo and MP Mr Cornel Damon recently inspected rehabilitation work on the canal. The minister, who checked the embankment, said the excavated mud will help to strengthen the shoulders of the canal.
The minister said when the PPP/C Government desilted the canal, thousands of acres of fertile lands, including large coconuts estates, were drained and farmers rushed back to their farms.
Minister Baksh said the canal is very important to drain the eastern section of the Pomeroon River bank and interconnects with several other cross canals to drain farmlands into the Atlantic Ocean via the river.