The Region Two Dawa pump station – rehabilitated at a cost of $409M – was yesterday commissioned by Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud.
Funded by the European Union (EU) as part of its support to the Caribbean rice sector, the Pomeroon/Supenaam pump will benefit around 2,000 farmers.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) last evening said that Persaud told the commissioning that the administration has always seen “agriculture as central to Guyana’s economy and way of life. The rice sub-sector is a significant part of the agriculture sector in Guyana and as such the Government has a sound vision for the industry”.
GINA said that general rehabilitation was done on the pump house and dams and four new pumps from The Netherlands were installed. These have a total discharge capacity of 480 cubic feet per second, outfitted with four new engines, and will channel water into the Tapakuma Lake in the dry season and enable drainage during the wet season.
GINA said that Persaud cautioned farmers who may be contemplating big investments to invest wisely.
“I would like to advise caution when it comes to using your newly acquired profits to make large capital investments in machinery and the like. As you will recall when high prices were occurring in the 1990s with much of our rice going to the EU at a high price through the Other Countries and Territories (OCT) route, farmers spent much of their profits on machinery facilitated by bank loans. However, when the route was reorganized, these farmers were left with lower returns and higher levels of debt”, Persaud said.
Head of the Economic Division of the EU office in Guyana Rigo Belpaire said that one of the major components of the programme is the rehabilitation of water infrastructure which is based on the assumption that improved D&I is key to boosting the rice yield. He pointed out that a feasibility study in 2003 had listed important water infrastructure for rehabilitation as the Dawa pump and sluices at Golden Fleece and Westbury.
Following questions raised about the project, Stabroek News had visited the site of the work in April. There the contractor Harrichand Toolsie had debunked reports that the work was not being done properly.
