…will protect over 1000 acres of land from flooding

IN an effort to protect over 1,000 acres of land from flooding, government has commissioned an $86.6 million sluice and revetment project at Thierens, on the Island of Leguan.

According to a report from the Department of Public Information (DPI), over 50 farmers will benefit from the new sluice, which was commissioned on Wednesday.

According to the DPI report, Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder said the government has been concentrating on water resource management as a priority, since local agriculture is practised in the low-lying areas of Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

“This sluice can adequately drain an area of 750 acres. It takes into consideration your current situation and any future developments in the village of Thierens…This will considerably increase the benefits attained by improving crop production since shorter, and less frequent, inundation periods can be expected,” said Holder.

Minister Holder said his ministry, through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), had expended approximately $8 Billion in 2019 to continue the implementation of plans for the upgrading and rehabilitation of the drainage and irrigation infrastructure in all regions across Guyana.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NDIA, Fredrick Flatts, also said over the years the authority has sought to improve drainage and irrigation throughout the country. According to Flatts, as NDIA continues to increase drainage coefficient across the nation, 12 pumps – 9 fixed and 3 mobiles- are expected to arrive in less than two months from India.
Leguan farmer, Roopchand Maraj, in commending the ministry for the work they did, said: “this project was neglected for years and we were faced with major flooding. So, this is a great gift.”

Another farmer for over two decades, Jagdesh Ramratan said: “we are happy for this. It will help us greatly.”

The commissioning of the sluice comes a few weeks after some 30 families of Leguan were affected by flooding.

Guyana Chronicle had reported that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP)- controlled Leguan-Endeavour Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) was blamed for neglecting their duties to repair and maintain a koker door, which gave away and caused flooding in some areas of the Region Three island on Tuesday.

Former Councillor of the Leguan-Endeavour NDC, Amjad Shaw, believes the situation could have been avoided if the NDC had serviced the door.

“The NDC has received money to service the door but they are very negligent… it was the negligence of the NDC to service the door that caused this,” said Shaw in an invited comment on Friday.

The former councillor said persons suffered for the short time because they had to battle with high levels of water, which got into their yards and houses.
“Some persons incurred damages beyond repair,” said Shaw, reiterating that the problem could have been avoided.

He had called on the NDC to be more proactive in their approach to maintaining critical structures so that such situations could be avoided in the future.