…trapped in flooded BBP savannah

By Nafeeza Yahya
MERE hours after pleading for help, cattle farmers in the Cookrite Creek Savannah, Black Bush Polder, East Berbice, Corentyne met with Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo at State House, New Amsterdam.

The Prime Minster and a technical team, which also included Junior Finance Minister Jaipaul Sharma;REO Region 6, Kim Stephens; Regional NDIA Engineer, Lester Persaud; PM Representative, Gobin Harbajan, as well as representatives from the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), met with approximately 30 cattle farmers who detailed their plight to the team and called for immediate actions to save their 12,000 heads of cattle in the area.

The farmers explained that due to flooding caused by the overtopping of the Canje Creek, over approximately 1200 heads of cattle are already dead and they fear more will die soon since those that died are still in the water and will contaminate it. “Over 1200 cattle done dead already, me alone lose 100, me nah know how much more dead today” said Seenarine Deonarine who has 700 heads of cows and 15 horses in the savannah.
He explained that presently the cows are swimming in the savannah since the water level rose within the past two days. “Them a swim right now. About a week ago the water did deh by you waist but now it deh by you stomach.Presently now the creek dam totally duck them cow nah get no place fuh guh and stand on high grounds. Wid this water, them a get cold and fever and this a cause dem fuh get like wan fits ah dem head and them a dead out, fifteen twenty a dead a day”

The farmers explained to this publication that due to extensive flooding caused by the overtopping of the Canje Creek and recent heavy rains, the entire savannah is flooded covering the grass and reaching as high as the stomach of the animals. “The water reach them cow belly and it getting wet all the time, this a cause them fuh get sick; some a dem a get cramp and suh, plus the whole field flood; them nah get nothing fuh eat and what mek it wuss is that we can’t bring them out because the dam too flood”

Another farmer said he depends solely on the cattle for his livelihood and without an immediate solution he would become a pauper, having already lost over 10 million. “150 heads done gone down the drain fuh me that ah over 10 million dollar.Me nah do rice, cow me depend on fuh feed me wife and four children and we need help right now. The last time we had a flood similar to this was sometime in 1972, but it nah been suh bad”.
After listening to the plight of the cattle farmers, Prime Minister Nagamootoo called for cooperation in handling the situation, noting that he spoke with the Minister of Agriculture since last night and from his end in Georgetown he was meeting with the various heads of department to have immediate relief even as the meeting is ongoing here in Berbice.

“In order for us to solve this issue we need the cooperation of everyone — the farmers, NDC, RDC, Water User Associations, Civil Defense Committee, GLDA. Everyone has to work together to get this problem resolved. I spoke with Minister Holder and he has assured me all the pumps are working since last night to bring relief in the interim until we could have a better assessment of the situation.”
The Prime Minister noted that in order to have a solution, it is vital to have a technical person on the ground to assess the situation. To this end the Prime Minster called the Army and they made available a helicopter which collected NDIA engineer, Rickford Sue and members of the CDC that flew over the flooded area to get a first-hand look at the situation on the ground and come up with both immediate and long term solutions.

The PM also instructed the REO to issue an advisory to all stray catchers to halt their operations immediately in light of the situation since cattle farmers do not have much of an option at this time. The Prime Minister continued that the farmers however must put the safety of others first and not be callous in their actions and pose a risk to the lives of others by leaving their animals to roam freely on the main thoroughfares. The PM said he noted there are some rumours that the flooding is caused by Guysuco pumping water into the water user irrigation canals, as well as the drainage pumps not working due to shortage of financing to purchase fuel.

“I have spoken to Minster Holder and he has assured me that Skeldon Estate is not releasing water into the 52/74 water users association and that all the drainage pumps are working. I’ve read that there was a comment from a regional representative in some sections of the media that they can’t deal with the flood situation because the government has withheld money to buy fuel. I don’t want the people to suffer flood because there is no fuel but this statement is untrue that the regional representative is telling you. I have the Junior Finance Minister here and I want him to deal with this issue because if money is needed, the ministry of finance will have to release it.”

Jaipaul Sharma noted that the comments made regarding the finances appear to be that of someone’s imaginations since there is sufficient funding available in the budget to spend. He said that there are two line items, agriculture and Infrastructural works under which fuel can be bought and only 22% and 16% respectively have been spent from each. “Under agriculture, 270.5M was budgeted, however only 48.7 million or 22% were spent based on the report I just received from the REO. A further 5.5 million was budgeted for the works programme and only 898,000 was spent or 16% . That means they have over 223 million available to spend which shows there is sufficient funding without the need for the Ministry of Finance to intervene.”

The PM in wrapping up, noted that there are no excuses right now to solve the issue at hand since fuel is available, financing is available, resources and personnel are at the region’s disposal to do whatever else is needed. The prime minister was quizzed as to why he did not visit the area with the helicopter but he stated that space was limited and he made room for a second technical person to be available to assess the situation so that solutions can be made, as opposed to him who is not technically inclined in that field take up a spot just to see what is happening.

Assess situation
Meanwhile, Regional Engineer Lester Persaud explained that NDIA has a team that is working with the CDC to assess the situation and are not only looking at current solutions but a long term solution to avoid a repeat. He noted that the previous methods used to drain the savannah into the irrigation canal of the Black Bush drainage and Irrigation infrastructure can lead to possible flooding of the residential areas. But with the installation of a 120 cubic meters per sec pump at Adventure to drain Black Bush there is the possibility it can work.

He however cautioned that given the current state of affairs across the country, making such a pump immediately available through NDIA might be a bit of a challenge and asked the Prime Minister for assistance in this regards. Further, in relation to feeding the starving animals, the representatives from GLDA advised the farmers to use bran and molasses in the interim until they can get the animals to highlands or pastures where they can get grass.