Agriculture Minister  Dr Leslie Ramsammy’s disclosure that the Hope Canal construction would not go beyond the revised August deadline is indeed encouraging, because it is a crucial one for the agriculture sector, but more particularly it brings hope for the farmers of  Mahaica/Mahaicony communities, as they have suffered immense losses due to flooding caused by excessive rain.

The construction of the Hope Canal was one of the recommendations made by a Dutch engineer, who came here under the auspices of the UN following the Great Flood which was our biggest natural disaster. It caused massive damage to crops which resulted in huge financial losses to farmers, particularly the farmers of the Mahaica/Mahaicony communities.
What is also a great relief is that following threats by the parliamentary opposition to slash the estimates of expenditure for the agriculture sector allocated in the national budget for this year, good sense seemed to have prevailed and consequently they allowed the passage of the estimates in the National Assembly.
Dr Ramsaamy was grilled on the relief canal for the East Demerara Water Conservancy, particularly as it relates to design flaws that had been raised publicly by local engineers inclusive of Charles Sohan.
He told the House the concerns raised were addressed to the satisfaction of the consultants and engineers.
He further indicated that the engineers that had been making public pronouncements regarding design flaws had been invited to sit as advisers on the board but had declined.
Dr Ramsammy said that while he is no engineer, when concerns are raised he convenes meetings with his engineers and, according to the minister, “Our engineers are satisfied that their concerns are being taken on board.”
Many of the concerns raised publicly had already been identified in-house and dealt with to the satisfaction of stakeholders, he said.
Dr Ramsammy told the House that the project is set to be completed by August 31 and lamented significant sloth in the works undertaken last year.
Only 30 to 40 per cent of the work was completed utilising 80 per cent of the allotted time, according to Dr Ramsammy.
“We didn’t just give August 31. We, actually, discussed what is remaining to be done and we put the reasonable amount of time it could take to do it. So we are confident that the work to be done can be completed by the deadline,” he stated.
However, while the minister’s disclosure is very reassuring and most welcome, the issue of contractors not meeting their deadlines for major projects seems to be too frequent an occurrence in our country. This problem is not only restricted to the agriculture sector but in many other sectors.
When completion deadlines for major projects are not met, it causes several associated problems including the costs and great inconvenience to stakeholders and the general public.
And  very important too, these delays in many instances stall production which obviously impacts adversely on the national economy.
It is therefore imperative that the relevant authorities take a hard look at the causative factors for contractors  not meeting completion deadlines for projects, and implement appropriate measures that will ensure that project deadlines are adhered to.
And only in exceptional cases, for genuine reasons, should completion of projects go beyond scheduled deadlines.