‘Hope Canal’ to be commissioned in June

THE Northern Relief Channel (NRC) of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) at Hope/Dochfour, East Coast Demerara, is to be commissioned in June.
Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who made the disclosure in the National Assembly Wednesday night, said no further delays in the commissioning are expected.Responding to questioning by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Joseph Harmon, the minister maintained that the project will be completed within the budgetary allocations of $3.6B.
The EDWC/NRC is anticipated to be the answer to the flooding experienced in the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary areas during rainy periods and has four components.
Those are:
* the over 10-kilometres channel from the
EDWC;
* a bridge across the public road;
* a conservancy head regulator with three gates, and
* a sluice at the canal’s Atlantic end with eight gates.
Minister Ramsammy had said, in January, that the channel, which will be the last aspect to be completed, is 95 percent done and cannot be fully realised until the project is ready to be operational.
FULLY UTILISED
In his update on Wednesday, he pointed out that the bridge across the public road had already been built and was being fully utilised.
He reported, too, that the conservancy’s head regulator is 95 percent complete with 100 percent completion awaiting a part which would make it ready to operate.
According to him, “Work on the outer sluice at the Atlantic end is about 75 percent complete right now.”
He assured that the Ministry of Agriculture is working with the contractor on a system which sees the work divided into tranches with specific deadlines.
The EDWC Northern Relief Channel at Hope/Dochfour is being built with Government of Guyana resources, an entirely local workforce of Guyanese contractors, engineers and workers.
The undertaking began in 2011 with an estimated 18 months completion schedule but has been dogged, mainly, by technical difficulties encountered during the construction of the eight gate sluice at the canal’s Atlantic end.
By Clifford Stanley

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.