-President Ali says, commits to supporting Parika cattle farmers and building shade houses

AS farmers continue to grapple with the effects of the prolonged dry season, work will soon commence to construct a Hope-like Canal in Region Three, President, Dr Irfaan Ali announced on Sunday.

The Head of State during an engagement with farmers from the communities of Parika, Canal Number One and Canal Number Two, also disclosed that works are ongoing to enhance the capacity of a conservancy in the region.

Farmers from Canals Number One and Two said that while there have been significant improvements in the respective communities, the dry season has brought on new challenges as it pertains to drainage and irrigation.

“So what we want to do is take one big canal out to the Demerara River for drainage, but more importantly for storage, so it will be a reservoir and on both sides of that, we will put two irrigation canals …that will help to resolve a lot of the issues,” the President said, while responding to the concerns of the farmers.

While in the two communities, the farmers were told that the intention is to build a Hope-like canal in the region. The Hope Canal which has Guyana’s largest sluice, aids in directing excess water towards the Atlantic Ocean.

The massive drainage and irrigation infrastructure which was commissioned back in 2014 has eight doors that function as a drainage sluice.

Aside from this massive project, the President told the farmers that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) has commenced works to increase the capacity of the conservancy.

“One of the challenges is that the conservancy right now is almost at zero, so we have to pump water now to the conservancy,” he said, emphasing that the extended drought-like weather pattern has caused the water levels of the conservancy dam and canals to dwindle significantly.

As a result, some 30 pumps are being utilised to supplement the reduced surface-water sources.

“If we were not pumping water into the conservancy, it would have been dead now, and we would have had no water to service the farmers. So, what we are doing now is pumping water into the conservancy, and then pumping water from the conservancy into the nearby canal and other canals in the region,” President Ali said.

“This is the situation across the country. We are talking about more than 20 million gallons of water being pumped. We have two pumps supplying the conservancy and this one supplying the canal,” the president added.

He then noted the complexity of the operation and the massive investment that it will entail.

“We want farmers to know that we understand the challenge, and we are putting all the infrastructure in place. Of course, we did not anticipate such a long dry season, and the magnitude… so, it is a very costly exercise, but a necessary one,” President Ali said.

Additionally, he highlighted that there are some signature projects that have started within the region that will help to reduce flooding by 50-60 per cent in several communities.

“Another thing that we are doing is investing in a number of mobile pumps throughout the region [and] by the end of this year, we will have 40 additional pumps deployed to different areas.”

President Ali walked the length of the conservancy dam at Canal Number Two, where he engaged residents who expressed concerns about drainage, and accessibility.

The Head of State made it clear that while it would not be feasible to construct a road on the Conservancy Dam, a walkway can be built to improve accessibility.

Meanwhile at Parika Backdam, East Bank Essequibo, farmers made requests for lands to graze cattle and build shade houses to enhance cash crop farming. They also expressed drainage and irrigation concerns.

In response, the President said that Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha would return to address these issue and provide the necessary assistance.

“We will bring down some shade house material in the new week,” the President said.

He later suggested that one area be used to support cattle farmers before outlining several drainage and irrigation projects that are slated to bring relief to farmers and alleviate flooding in certain areas during the rainy season.

Minister Mustapha who also engaged the farmers on Sunday, committed to providing farming inputs.

He noted that the ministry will follow up on the various requests made for shade houses and other support.

“Generally, in agriculture communities we are doing a number of these projects. There will be four new pump stations in Region Three. We will have a massive, integrated drainage system and also we will store water so that when we end up in problems like these, we will have irrigation water,” Mustapha said.