Residents of Hope/Dochfour on the East Coast of Demerara are calling on the authorities to give them more information as they are still in the dark about compensation to be paid to them for their land as well as other issues, such as whether a feasibility study would be undertaken on the proposed Hope Relief Canal whose construction will see more than 40 households in the area being relocated.

At a meeting held yesterday in the community, attended also by members of the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers (GAPE) and leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, the residents said that they had been informed at a meeting held with Ministry of Agriculture officials including Permanent Secretary Dindyal Permaul, that the government would be able to pay compensation after the passing of the 2010 budget. Stabroek News had carried a report on February 7 on the issue in which Permaul stated that the ministry would be contacting the residents in a matter of two weeks to outline a plan for them.

Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud told Stabroek News last month that the funds to be paid out as part of the compensatory package had been tied up due to budgetary allocations.  He explained that close to $70 million would have to be paid out, and he hoped this could be done within the next two weeks. Regarding the relocation of the people, he said land for housing had already been set aside but final arrangements were being made with respect to the allocation of farmland. According to him, this could be tied up within a matter of months.

The residents complained that the authorities continued to be silent on the proposed project as they waited in vain to hear about which of them could continue cultivating their crops. The authorities have advised residents who are expected to be relocated to sections of the Hope Estate to wait until the project outline is completed before cultivating their crops. One resident, Doodnauth, told Stabroek News that he was concerned about the current state of affairs, his main concern being his farmland. He also said that a valuation had been done on his property some time after the community had been approached by the authorities last year. His house was valued at $2.2M then, which he noted was the market price.

He said that the Agriculture Minister’s pronouncement during his Budget 2010 presentation that work was expected to commence on the project within a matter of 6 weeks was worrisome, since the authorities had not yet finalized compensation arrangements for their farmland.

Harry Rampersaud, another farmer also expressed concern about compensation for his farmland. He said that he had had to spend significant sums of money on infrastructural work on his 16 acres, work he added, the authorities should have been assisting him with. He noted that there were other options which could have been pursued as opposed to construction of the canal, one option being the clearing and maintaining of the three canals which run towards the coast.

The issue of a feasibility study was also raised at the meeting, and engineers William Ford and Charles Sohan questioned whether one had been carried out for the proposed project since this would give an indication of the economic and social impacts the project would have on the affected communities. The residents were of the view that no such assessment had been done to date, and it was suggested by the engineers present that only engineering consultancy work had been undertaken for the project. Sohan said that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should have been on the cards.
The proposed Hope Relief Canal is budgeted by the authorities at a cost of some $3B, a figure which has been queried by many, including Sohan, who said that no design, bill of quantities or costing had been prepared for the project.