–gov’t working to alleviate flooding, assist local farmers, Dr. Jagdeo says

CLIMATE mitigation efforts are underway in Guyana as the government seeks to roll out a comprehensive plan to enhance countrywide drainage and irrigation, alleviate the effects of flooding and improve the lives of local farmers.

Particular focus is being placed on building new infrastructure, replacing and rehabilitating aged pumps and sluices, which, according to the country’s Vice- President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, is being funded by revenue earned through the country’s sale of carbon credits.

“We have also been reinvesting in drainage and irrigation, not just for farming but also to alleviate flooding in the built-up areas. I had the opportunity to outline to the residents in Essequibo how we are funding a lot of these activities; it’s from the sale of our forest carbon,” Dr. Jagdeo said at a Thursday news conference.

Earlier in the week, the Vice-President along with several other government officials engaged farmers in Region Two.

There, residents were informed of several initiatives being undertaken by the government to bolster the agriculture sector.

“Last year, over a billion dollars was spent on drainage and irrigation. Right now, we have over 2.4 billion in work ongoing in the region for drainage and irrigation. …You know, drainage and irrigation is the lifeblood of farming,” Jagdeo told reporters.

CARBON CREDIT SALE
The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), in December 2022, issued the world’s first TREES credits to Guyana.

This marked a milestone, as it was the first time a country was issued carbon credits specifically designed for the voluntary and compliance carbon markets for successfully preventing forest loss and degradation, a process known as jurisdictional REDD+.
Following the completion of an independent validation and verification process and approval by the ART Board of Directors, ART issued 33.47 million TREES credits to Guyana for the five-year period from 2016 to 2020.

Through this approach, the country has successfully executed transactions worth nearly US$1 billion for the climate services rendered by Guyana’s forests. Out of this amount, US$227 million originated from the bilateral agreement with the Government of Norway, while an additional US$750 million resulted from the sale of ART-TREES credits in 2023.

MASSIVE CANALS
Dr. Jagdeo had previously disclosed that the government would expend some $26 billion to construct massive canals across the country.

Dr. Jagdeo said that the Hope-like canals will be built in Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). In Region Three, it is expected that the drainage and irrigation structure will target some 28,000 acres of land; in Region Five, 214,000 acres, while in Region Six, 188,000 acres of land will see better water management.

The Hope Canal, which has Guyana’s largest sluice, aids in directing excess water towards the Atlantic Ocean. The massive drainage and irrigation infrastructure located in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) was commissioned back in 2014, and has eight doors that function as a drainage sluice.

The funding for the new projects, Dr. Jagdeo said, will come from the country’s sale of carbon credits to the American oil firm, Hess Corporation.

This is in keeping with the country’s Low- Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), as 85 per cent of its carbon credits proceeds are intended for climate-adaptation projects.

Aside from this, Dr. Jagdeo also disclosed that $47 million would be expended to facilitate rehabilitation works at over 60 sluices across the country.

Simultaneously, the government is also building out the capacity of pumping stations.

Ideally, the government intends to rehabilitate 60 kokers across the country, procure 40 mobile pumps, [and] build 19 pump stations, with 39 major pumps installed across the country.
“[It’s] a massive plan to ensure that we are climate resilient, and that we also improve drainage and irrigation for our farmers, which could lead to a massive output of agriculture products for our country,” Jadgeo said.