THERE has been much debate on the challenges of the completion of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) Northern Relief Channel, Hope Canal.

However, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds contends that the almost complete project has left Guyana with experiences to build on in advancing the development of Guyana’s drainage and irrigation infrastructure.
Speaking at Thursday’s fifth annual engineering conference, he said: “There has been much debate in the media on the need of it…how well it will work or not work. It will come into position soon and it behooves us to study how it performs so that in the future, the next time around, when to consider questions on drainage, we will have that experience to build on. This is a good addition to the growing body of knowledge.”
The building of knowledge base among the current corps of engineers, Hinds acknowledged, is critical to furthering the development of Guyana.

The one-day annual engineering conference is traditionally the premier forum for the presentation of new ideas in the various domains of engineering, including transportation engineering (land, water and air), architectural engineering, traffic and highway engineering, coastal, river defence engineering and energy engineering, among other areas.
The conference brought together a wide range of local and international experts in these fields as well as several other engineering professionals, contractors, consultants and engineering students – including some of those who have been engaged in the Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) Northern Relief Channel project.
The Hope Canal project’s four components include: the more than 10-kilometre channel; the head regulator; the eight-door sluice; and the EDWC Northern Relief Channel Public Road Bridge. The latter was completed and commissioned last February. Some minor works on a few of the components remain to be completed.
The EDWC Northern Relief Channel, the Hope Canal, which missed its June 30 deadline for completion, was given a new deadline in the latter part of July, when its completion was raised at the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment. The Agriculture Minister, when he appeared before the Committee, disclosed that the project will be completed in seven weeks, by September. However, this deadline has also passed due to unforeseen challenges.
The minister, in a prior comment, stated that given the continued delays with the project, the issue of liquidated damages is not off the table. “The accommodation of the contractor does not mean that the contractor will escape liquidated damages,” he said.
The Agriculture Minister stressed too the quality of work produced by the contractor has been of a very high standard. “Some of the difficulties that the contractor has encountered can be resolved by the Ministry, and so all we are doing is working in partnership with the contractor so that those difficulties are removed,” he said.
Indications were that the US$15M Hope Canal project, which is expected to be the answer to flooding in the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary (MMA) areas during rainy periods, would be operational as the rainy season sets in. Residents in the MMA area over the years have lost crops and livestock in floods, during the rainy period. As seen in the past, when the Maduni sluice has to be opened to drain the East Demerara Water Conservancy, residents in the MMA area have to battle a rise in the Mahaica Creek – making the completion of the Hope Canal something that is much needed.
The East Demerara Water Conservancy in the past had 10 discharge points, with three on the East Bank of Demerara discharging into the Demerara River; two at Mahaica; and five discharge points on the East Coast of Demerara – all leading to the Atlantic Ocean. Their closure made the Hope Canal an even greater necessity, in order to facilitate increased and direct discharges into the Atlantic.

(By Vanessa Narine)