Farmers in the Hope/ Dochfour area, East Coast Demerara are in a quandary after receiving conflicting messages from officials from the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) as regards the Hope Relief Canal.
When this newspaper visited the area on Thursday, some farmers told Stabroek News that on Tuesday they were told that an additional 50 feet (25 ft on both sides of the canal) will be cleared to accommodate the canal. The 50 feet would include land that the farmers have already planted and should this happen more than 50 farmers will be affected, this newspaper was told. The farmers said they had not been told anything as yet about compensation. According to the farmers, before the project began in October, they were told that 300 feet would have to be cleared to accommodate the dam, canal and seepage drain.
However, at a meeting yesterday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NDIA Lionel Wordsworth reportedly assured the farmers that no additional land would be taken. The farmers are now waiting to see what will play out.
“Me ain know, the man tell we one thing on Tuesday and now Lionel tell me another thing and both a dem from de NDIA,” one farmer told this newspaper yesterday.
When contacted on Thursday, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said that the issue with the farmers would be addressed at a meeting to be held with them. Persaud also said that he will be visiting the worksite on Tuesday.
Contacted yesterday for clarification on the issue, the minister said he will address the conclusions of today’s meeting on Tuesday.
However, the initial announcement that additional farmlands would be cleared outraged several farmers. One rice farmer, Bahadur Rampesaud said he is set to lose approximately 40 acres should the additional 25 metres be cleared. He said that so far he already lost 38 acres of land in the initial clearing exercise and was compensated $125,000. He said while he had been promised additional land for farming he never got this land. Other farmers repeated the claim that although they had been promised land in the original relocation package, they were only given financial compensation. Given the latest development, Rampersaud said he is contemplating going to the courts to seek redress, saying that the farmers deserved better. “All ah we born and grow here. We parents born and grow here,” he said.
“Is nah bush land they taking, from me, is cultivated land,” one outspoken farmer Roy Doodnauth said. He had planted ochroes, peppers and other cash crops on his land. Doodnauth said following the commencement of construction of the canal, he had written to Dr Oudho Homenauth, the Chairman of the Hope Coconut Industries Ltd, requesting access to unoccupied land in the area for farming but received no response. The question of access to land was reportedly raised at yesterday’s meeting and a promise was made to award land, this newspaper was told. Another meeting on this matter is scheduled for later this week.
Doodnauth Seebalack, another cash crop farmer, said he will lose another 5 acres of land and questioned how he would provide for his family. “The compensation wuh dey gon give yuh, yuh can’t start anything new,” Seebalack lamented. The move, Seebalack said, has come as a surprise to him since the negotiator in the deal Moses Nagamootoo had told them they could plant from the mark outlined for the canal.
Cash crop farmer Mohamed Sulamad anticipates that he will suffer economic hardships if more land is taken away from him. He lost two acres during the initial clearing exercise leaving him with only three acres of land to cultivate. The additional clearing would leave him with only one and a half acres of land to cultivate. “When deh tek away yuh land, they gon find job for we? Wuh we gon do?” he asked.
Construction of the $3.6 billion relief channel began in October and the project is expected to be completed within two years. The facility is intended to drain the EDWC into the Atlantic Ocean, serving as a more efficient and less destructive means of releasing water from the conservancy. At the moment, when the EDWC is at a dangerous level, water from the conservancy is drained through the Maduni and Lama sluices and this has caused catastrophic flooding in the Mahaica and Mahai-cony areas.
There have been mixed views about the project, as several experienced engineers have opined that the construction of the channel is not the best option to drain the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC), since there are other cheaper and more effective options available. The Agri-culture Minister, however, has repeatedly said that the decision to construct this canal is being done on the best technical advice.
