–will help ease flooding there, Friendship during heavy rains

CONSTANT flooding within the East Coast Demerara villages of Buxton and Friendship during heavy rainfall will now be drastically reduced with the commissioning of a new $376.9M pump station at Buxton on Friday.

The Ministry of Agriculture, through the Flood Risk Management Project, has commissioned five pumps to date, starting with the one at Lusignan in April.
The Friendship-Vigilance Pump Station was done in May, and the Enmore pump in July. The Ministry of Agriculture, through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), commissioned one at Three Friends, on the Essequibo Coast in October.

Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder said the commissioning of pump stations is in keeping with the holistic approach to drainage and irrigation, so as to create an enabling and sustainable system by increasing Guyana’s resilience to floods and droughts.
The pump, he said, will pull off the excess water during heavy rains from the drainage network and discharge it directly into the Atlantic Ocean. He said that the pump’s discharge capacity has been increased dramatically, from the approximately 80 cubic feet of water per second under the former system, to 200 cubic feet of water per second now.

Its catchment area, the minister said, is the villages of Buxton and Friendship, which were traditionally dependent on the cultivation of sugarcane, ground provision, cash crops, and fruits.
“It covers some 712 hectares (1,760 acres),” he said. “Furthermore, it will benefit 859 households in Buxton and a proportion of the 552 households in Friendship.”

The government, Minister Holder said, believes in the development of the village economy through infrastructural projects such as drainage, which play an important role in the stability and prosperity of the country as a whole, and our coastal zone in particular.
In Guyana, he said, there is an enormous need for infrastructural investment in drainage and irrigation, the estimated cost of which, according to the World Bank, is approximately US$123M.

Underscoring that Guyana’s main economic activities are concentrated on its low-lying coastal zone, Minister Holder said the mere idea that this area is some six feet below mean sea level makes the country particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change.

“It is anticipated to have potentially disastrous impacts on the economic viability of the agricultural sector,” he said, adding:

“The potential negative impacts are significant, with both direct and indirect impacts on Guyana’s economy, due to the high risk placed on both agricultural activities and human settlements.”
One study, he said, has even put the maximum direct loss from extreme climatic events at approximately US$300M.

Noting that in the three short years since taking office, the coalition government has experienced at least two episodes of extensive flooding, and a drought, Minister Holder said what this means, therefore, is that Guyana needs to be able to adapt quickly to climatic changes where water resources management is concerned.

He said: “We must enforce measures to withstand the effects of climate change in two distinct ways: Through mitigation of its effects, or long-term adaptation to minimise its effects, while ensuring continued agricultural development.”

He said that his ministry is currently implementing the Rural Agricultural Infrastructure Development Project (RAID) in small-scale farming communities in Regions Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Five (Mahaica- Berbice), and that Buxton is one of the beneficiaries.

Said he in closing: “The Government of Guyana cares for the people of Buxton, and wishes to give you all the supporting infrastructure required for you to experience the good life.
“We will continue to work closely and provide necessary support to farmers and the entire Buxton-Friendship community.”