GUYANA and Brazil on Thursday signed two agreements – one of which will help reduce the effects of drought in the Rupununi.

This agreement focuses on the Implementation of the Project -“Technologies to Reduce the Effects of the Drought in Region Nine of Guyana”. According to a Ministry of the Presidency statement, President David Granger and a Cabinet delegation signed the two agreements with the Federative Republic of Brazil. The President is on a visit to Guyana’s neighbour and he is accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.

According to the release the agreement signed is a Complementary Agreement to the Basic Agreement on Technical Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Guyana and the Federative Republic of Brazil. The other agreement which was inked is the Complementary Agreement to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Federative Republic of Brazil, which creates the “Guyana-Brazil Joint Commission to Develop Infrastructure Projects.”

Meanwhile, regarding the agreement to fight drought, earlier this year Ambassador Talbot had told the media that the Brazilian authorities were in the process of preparing the framework under which Brazil would build a number of wells. The ambassador had said back in May that the Complementary Agreement to the Technical Cooperation Agreement that Guyana has with Brazil will be ready to be signed by the two countries to facilitate actions by Brazil in support of the project. “The project will commence before the end of this year, with the target (being) the end of the current rainy season to begin works,” Ambassador Talbot had told the Department of Public Information. He said then that during the works on the Brazilian side, counterparts on the Guyana side will be trained in drilling of the wells, operational procedures and well maintenance. “The element of capacity training is very important on this project which makes more than just a single intervention of drilling and leaving and building of capacity so that in the future Guyanese will be able to perform the works.”

President Granger disclosed on Thursday that the Brazilian Army will be working closely with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to develop its Engineering Corps. This collaboration will see the drilling of artesian wells in Indigenous communities in villages such as Para Bara, Achiwib, Karaudarnau, Aishalton, Awarewanau, Shea and Mururanau.
“As we know Rupununi is susceptible to droughts and floods so we want to remove that uncertainty and have a system under which the communities, there are over 50 villages in the Rupununi that could be supplied with fresh water continuously during the year and Brazilian terrain across the border is similar in many respects. So there is not only going to be a supply of physical infrastructure but there’s also going to be a transfer of technology,” President Granger said.