With the flood-causing Maduni sluice to have been closed yesterday, residents of the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks were happy that with two days of sun, the water level has dropped slightly although rice farmers have already lost their crops while others were battling to save theirs.
Not wanting their investment, time and hard work to go to waste, the farmers purchased a few drums of fuel and kept pumping since the water started rising more than two weeks ago. The residents have also lost produce from their cash crop farm.
They told Stabroek News yesterday that the water started to recede from Tuesday evening and that about two inches have come off the land so far. They said although it was not significant, it has brought them some hope that soon it would go completely.
A statement yesterday from Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy said:
“This morning I called His Excellency President Donald Ramotar and informed him that we had decided that the Maduni Sluice could be closed today (yesterday) , even though we had not reached the target water level of 58.3.
“At 9.00 am this morning the water level in the East Demerara Water Conservancy dropped below 58.45. While the target for closing the Maduni was established at 58.30 to 58.0, we took a decision to close the Maduni Sluice today (yesterday). The Sluice will be fully closed at 12.00 noon.
“This decision was taken so that we could accelerate the receding of water in the Mahaica, Mahaicony and Abary areas.
“The decision was taken with the background of an improved weather pattern. We have had almost 36 hours of good weather (low rainfall amounts) and the forecast calls for continued good weather in the next 24 to 72 hours.
“We will continue our efforts in this area to bring about improved conditions.”
The release of water from the Maduni – over the last eight days into the Mahaica has flooded hundreds of households and destroyed cash crops and rice farms. Livestock and poultry farmers have also suffered heavy losses.
Kawal Shrikant of Gordon Table, Mahaicony Creek told this newspaper yesterday that he had already started to rebuild the dam to his field.
Together with his brothers he had invested over $2M along with $550,000 for 110 bags of seed. Although he felt lucky that he did not start to sow, he is not sure if the seeds would still germinate for the other crop.
When this newspaper contacted him he was “in two feet water in the savannah trying to find high place for my cows to rest at nights. Dem grazing in the water whole day.”
He said 20 of the cows which had become pregnant through artificial insemination were ready to give birth this month and the calves would drown in the floodwater. In fact, on Tuesday evening he lost the first calf.
Luckily, another brother, Poornanand Shrikant who came from Canada to invest in about 200 acres of rice left without doing any work. The rain started a few days after he arrived and he decided to “watch the weather.”
A small rice farmer, Bholanauth Deolall said his 10 acres plot is under water and he had to abandon it. He has also lost all his produce from his one-acre farm which had pepper [his main crop], 400 roots tomatoes, 200 roots sweet pepper and 200 roots “sucker.”
He said he depended on his farm for his living and presently he is not earning. He would normally take his produce to the Mahaica market weekly and said he had already started to reap.
Deolall who also lost several chickens said NARI promised some drugs for the poultry and promised that a team would visit soon.
“Everything duck; there is no means of earning a livelihood in the creek now,” he stressed.
Farmers insisted the rainfall water alone does not cause flooding to that extent and said after the Maduni sluice was opened “the water rise higher faster.”
Jailall Sukhra of Gordon Table who is employed with a rice farmer, said his boss is trying desperately to save his 140-acres of rice. The water has affected his cattle and “they were getting thin because they have no proper feed”
He said his boss had empoldered a section of the dam but stopped because another farmer needed the machine and because he did not expect the water to rise to that extent.
They are asking for “compensation because they [government] deliberately pour the water pun we.” A five-member team met with Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy yesterday to discuss compensation. The minister told them that there are plans to “do something but it has to pass through the National Assembly.
