Some farmers in Alness Village, Corentyne are not satisfied with the current drainage works being done in their area and they also contend that there was no prior consultation with them.
According to the residents, a contract, a copy of which Stabroek News has seen, was awarded for “the removal of all vegetations from both slopes and embankments and place same on the outer edges of the embankments” and to “provide for excavation of façade to the lines, levels, and dimensions, with a 1:1.5 side slope to a minimum of 60’ top width x 40’ bottom width x 2’ depth x 1500 rods and place materials as directed by the engineer.”
According to the farmers, the current width of the canal in question is no more than 20’ as compared to the 60’ as stipulated by the contract. They contend that in order to get the required 60’ their land will have to be dug into, thus reducing the size of their rice fields by nearly “2 rods”. Since this was not agreed upon by all the farmers, the canal continues to be about 20’ wide, although the contract said 60’ width. The farmers had proposed that the contractor “do the other side of the dam” to make up for the 60’, but this was refused. There is no way, the residents said, that you can get 60’ from any part of the canal. The said that they should have been consulted before and that the width of the original canal should have been known before huge sums of money were given out for contracts.
According to Samuel Bhudoo, a rice farmer of Alness, provision is not being made for the rice farmers to get their paddy out of the fields because the place where their tractors used to cross is now a part of the canal.
He said also that there is no plan to build bridges to allow their heavy equipment to cross while their rice is expected to be harvested shortly.
This drainage canal is supposed to drain water from the backlands into the Atlantic Ocean and is taken as a precaution against flooding.
Residents also said that solid earth has been taken from the dam and replaced with slush from the canal and the earth is being sold.
