– report to be forwarded to Cabinet

A HIGH-level government team headed by Region 2 Chairman Parmanand Persaud, visited the Lower Pomeroon River on Thursday and met scores of farmers while inspecting farms destroyed by flooding during the recent heavy rainfall and high tides in the Pomeroon River.

The team included Vice Chairman Vishnu Samaroo; General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board [GRDB] Jagnarine Singh; Regional Agriculture Officer Khemraj Khanhai; Engineer Jefaun Permansingh and

Councillor of the Regional Democratic Council [RDC] Vilma Da Silva.
They visited farms at Little Try Best, Grant Jackson, Grant Try Again and Grant Trial and inspected crops that were damaged by the recent flooding.
At Grant Try Best the high-level team met with several farmers and addressed a number of issues concerning the destruction of farms caused by the recent flooding.
The Region 2 Chairman told farmers that the regional administration is aware of the problems they are facing concerning the flooding. He also told farmers that the government team was visiting farms that were flooded to get a first-hand look at the situation and a report will be compiled and sent to Cabinet.
Farmer Parsram Persaud, known as “Indal”, told the team that his farm was flooded and some 500 avocado trees along with several acres with cassava were destroyed, amounting to millions of dollars in losses. According to the farmer, the flooding was compounded by water that was released from the Tapakuma Lake through the Dawa Pump Station into the Pomeroon River, but the regional chairman pointed out that the Dawa Pump Station was never opened to release water into the Pomeroon River.
Regional Vice Chairman Samaroo also emphasised that the pump station was never opened during the rainy season to release excess rainfall water from the lake to the Pomeroon River. He explained that because of the height of the water in the lake it ran over the conservancy dam into the Pomeroon River.
Meanwhile, farmers at Grant Try Best are calling for the Cozier sluice channel to be desilted so as to assist in discharging more water from the Pomeroon River into the Atlantic Ocean. They are also calling for the pump at Cozier to be operable in order to assist in drainage. In response, the Regional Chairman said efforts will be made to have the channel desilted.
Some of the farmers who lost their crops to flooding said that farming is their only source of livelihood. Brian Thomas said he lost five acres with bearing plantain and cassava plants, while Sudesh Singh said he lost five acres with plantains, cassava and avocados.
Another farmer, Julius Evans, said his farm was covered with water for one week. The farmer who is 67 years old said he has lost several acres with cassava and pumpkins. Evans said he does farming alone because labourers are hard to find in the Pomeroon, as all the young men have gone to the “gold bush”.

(By Rajendra Prabhulall)