RICE and other crops farmers on the Essequibo Coast are very thankful to the PPP/C government for disilting drainage canals in an $81M project executed by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).

The farmers said the project will greatly improve drainage for rice and other crops, and this will lead to their undertaking more cultivation and greater production.

They said Government must be commended for making more investments in the agriculture sector, so production can increase and farmers can get more money in their pockets.

Region Two Chairman Mr Parmanand Persaud, who inspected desilting works in progress at Capoey, said the project is aimed at desilting drainage canals between Johanna Cecilia in the south of the coast and Dartmouth in the north.

The Chairman said desilting works are currently in progress in the Walton Hall/Paradise area, and he is pleased and satisfied with the quality of work done by the contractor in the Queenstown/La Union area. He also inspected desilting works done near the La Union sluice.

The Chairman said desilting of the main canal leading to the sluice mouth will cause water to flow more quickly into the Atlantic Ocean, thus improving drainage for the benefit of farmers and residents in the Queenstown/La Union and Annandale villages.

Mr. Persaud also visited the sluice at Taymouth Manor, and said the canals leading to the sluice were also desilted under the NDIA drainage project, thus improving the flow of water from rice growing and residential areas to the ocean. The pontoon with the two excavators on board also desilted the channel of the sluice leading to the foreshore of the ocean, which had been silted up with tons of sling mud.

Having inspected the Three Friends Sluice, the chairman said lots of desilting work was done to clear the channel and mouth of the sluice. He said a mobile pump that was acquired from India has been set up next to the sluice to pump water from the drainage canal into the ocean.
During the dark days of the PNC regime, Region Two had always been flooded during heavy and extreme rainfall. Some farmers said the drainage canals had been taken over by weed because of careless management, and there had been no money to clean or desilt them.

One farmer said he could easily have walked over the drainage canals because of the thick vegetation it had during the days of the PNC. He said the seawall was another failure under the PNC, and there were serious episodes of flooding because of the collapsing sea defences. He said the amazing transformation of the sea defence structures and the drainage and irrigation network is today evidence that the Government is working in the interest of the people.

(Rajendra Prabhulall)