–paying top dollar to pump fresh water
Rice farmers along the Essequibo Coast are praying for a change in the current dry weather as a scarcity of fresh water in the rice producing areas has left several of them facing an uphill battle.
As El Nino weather conditions prevail, rice farmers in Region Two (Pomeroon/ Supenaam) have been working round the clock to source water to irrigate their rice fields. They have been relying on the use of tractor driven water pumps to pump water from the main drainage canals to irrigate the rice fields. Owners of water pumps are charging a fee of $5,000/hour for this purpose, a practice which is being criticized by the regional authorities who said that water in the system would not be able to reach desired areas because of a low gravity flow.
One rice farmer told Stabroek News on Tuesday that persistent rainfall in the area over the past few days had given him some hope that the situation will improve. He said his main concern was that there was little water left in the irrigation network along the rice producing areas and no feasible alternative to obtain water.
The man said he had invested heavily in his 30 acres of rice lands and that this is the first time in 12 years he has experienced such a problem. Another rice famer told Stabroek News that he had lost a significant portion of his crop and was hoping that the remaining plots will survive. “Me ain’t giving up. I invest too much to lose out,” the man said.
An official attached to the Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) department of the Region Two administration told Stabroek News yesterday that the regional authorities are working to cushion the situation by cleaning the main drainage areas in order to have water reach the rice lands. This is the nucleus of the problem, he said and work is ongoing to improve the situation.
He added that drainage work is being carried out at the back of the village of Lima, which entails de-silting of the drainage canals there. The official noted that sea sluices along the coastal area are also being “locked” so that water would be able to reach the rice lands.
He said water is being led to the main drainage canals to irrigate the rice lands adding that water from the Dawa Pump Station, which is sourced from the Tapakuma River, is also being pumped into the rice fields. The pump station, which was commissioned in May 2008, was designed to supplement water in the Tapakuma Conservancy/ Lake to irrigate rice lands along the Essequibo Coast between the villages of Somerset & Berks to Zorg-en-Vlygt.
Several rice farmers in the area had expressed concern on Tuesday about salt water from recent breaches in the sea defence system entering the main drainage canals from which they irrigate the rice lands. But according to the D&I official the salt water was channelled through a drainage system which eventually carried the water off the coastland. He said there was no evidence of the salt water contaminating fresh water used in the rice fields.
The National Drainage and Irrigation authority (NDIA) recently approved some $4 million for the region to purchase fuel for the continued operation of the Dawa facility and other irrigation pumps and the weather pattern which is expected to last until March, is costing the authorities approximately $3.2 million daily for the operation of pumps along the coastland.
Meanwhile, authorities in the region are currently working to fill breaches in the sea defence infrastructure at villages along the Essequibo Coast which were damaged as a result of recent high tides.
Vice-Chairman of the region Vishnu Samaroo told Stabroek News yesterday that he and other regional officials, including an engineer visited the areas recently including the village of Cullen.
He said the team made an assessment of the affected areas and the regional administration is working to fill a 30ft breach in the sea defence structure at Cullen, which Samaroo stated will take a few loads of earth among other works.
When this newspaper visited the affected areas on Tuesday, water flowed freely and flooded sections of the villages close to the coastline.
Several farms were inundated and a few households were also forced to relocate from parts of the area situated close to the sea defence.
The regional administration was already carrying out work to aspects of the sea defence structure at other parts of the coastline on Tuesday, including at Good Hope and Perseverance.
