Intentions
At a sitting of the National Assembly today, the country was likely to hear the views and vision of President Ramotar as he addresses the members of the august parliamentary institution. It is expected that the President will take the opportunity to outline his legislative priorities and, in effect, give Guyanese a glimpse of what to expect in the 2012 budget that his administration will place before the Assembly in the near future. The recent floods have set the nation off on a bad footing in 2012 with the loss of cash crops and the imposition of substantial economic hardship on farming households. As these farming households continue to count their losses and ponder their next move, every Guyanese is hoping that the drainage and irrigation (D & I) problem of the country will emerge as a major priority of the new administration. After the major floods of 2005, Guyanese have become wary of the weather and the administration. Drained and irritated by the constant need to battle contaminated and dangerous waters, there is a belief among some that it is no longer enough to switch the blame each year between the defenseless weather patterns of El Nino and La Nina and expect Guyanese to remain tolerant. The perennial flooding of coastal areas where the bulk of the country’s food is grown might not be preventable but there is widespread belief that the severity of its aftermath could be limited if the right strategies were followed. Getting to that point starts with a serious effort of understanding the factors responsible for the persistent floods and hopefully the President will disclose his intentions in this regard today.
Agreement
That Guyanese have to suffer like this every year is becoming more than a national nuisance, especially since there has been clear agreement for a long time now on what the drainage and irrigation problem is as the following quotation from the 2001-2010 National Development Strategy (NDS) shows.
“… Drainage for the whole area … is dependent on the efficient management of this facade canal. The efficient operation of the system is also dependent on regular maintenance. Canals require weeding and clearing three times a year. If this does not take place, vegetation slows water flow and this causes the canals to silt up more quickly, which further slows the flow. Over the past fifteen years the neglect of essential maintenance to the D&I infrastructure has led to the current situation in which much of the system is not operating to full capacity, and some sections are completely inoperable”.
But as one speaks to members of afflicted communities, it becomes clear that some are unimpressed with the drainage and irrigation strategies currently in use. The NDS envisaged the implementation of a set of practical solutions that combined technical, legislative, managerial and operational changes to improve the situation. An official evaluation of the effectiveness of the strategy is not available to this writer, but two issues have emerged as sore points among persons from affected communities. One relates to the design of the system and the other to the management of the system. For one who is not an engineer, the complexities of the problem might easily be missed. Yet, the drainage and irrigation system can be separated into three parts. It has a management structure at the national and local levels to administer the system. It has the physical infrastructure consisting of the set of interlocking canals and water conservancies through which water flows and lands are irrigated. The third part consists of the kokers and pumping stations located at the various outlet points to the rivers and sea. While there were differing views over the need for, and placement of, additional canals, there was consensus that the over reliance on the use of the slower pumping system was a major part of the drainage problem. In addition, there was a common feeling that the use of water users associations was ineffective in meeting the national drainage and irrigation management goals.
Economic Impact
The economic impact of flooding on households and the national economy is too great for this problem to be left to chance and crisis management.
The new administration therefore needs to revisit the drainage and irrigation arrangement with a view to achieving the most effective discharge method and for ensuring the most effective management of the programme. Those in favour the koker system point to the speed with which water drains from the land as the reason for advocating its use.
While no one could cite any specific comparative engineering studies that were done between drainage rates of kokers and pumps, observation and current experience leave them convinced that the koker method of discharge produced the best and fastest results. Despite being aware of the value of the kokers, the administration allowed them to fall into a state of disrepair.
While the administration has not tendered an official position on the utility and value of the koker system, its neglect reflects a lack of enthusiasm for that idea, especially on the East Coast of Demerara. The neglect and disuse of the koker system has resulted in the silting up of the outflow channels which would require substantial investments to clear if the kokers were to come back into use. None of the nearly G$12 billion invested in drainage and irrigation in the last two years went to clearing the outflow channels along the East Coast.
Contradiction
Another observation expressed by residents was the contradiction between the pumping system and the low carbon development strategy. Some of the pumps use electricity while others use diesel fuel. The reliance on fossil fuel for energy appears to many resident as a contradiction of the low carbon development policy. The koker on the other hand relies on manual input and makes it cheaper and much more environmentally friendly. With climate change as the rationale and justification for the low carbon development policy, it is surprising to many that greater emphasis is being placed on the use of pumps and the consumption of fossil fuels when sea level rise from global warming is deemed a source of the flooding problem.
The concern about pumps does not stop there. Some residents have pointed out that the reliability of the pumps is tied to the reliability of the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL). As noted before, some pumps use electricity and when there is a blackout, they are unable to pump the water.
Too many problems at the discharge point compounds the difficulties farming households face from exceptional rainfall. It must be borne in mind that every time farmers lose their crops through floods, it is not only the economic losses that have to be recovered but also the will to continue knowing that the cycle of flood and loss will repeat itself all over the next year. It is this psychological investment that has to be protected by the national drainage and irrigation policy and ought to motivate the new administration to fix this problem.
Water Users
Fixing the discharge deficiency is not the only solution required. The other issue concerns the management of the system. The NDS called for the involvement of the farmers in the operation and management of the drainage and irrigation system. Farmers were seen as having the greatest incentive in an efficient system of drainage and irrigation. Their lack of representation in the planning, operation and maintenance of the system was regarded as a major management weakness. To correct it, the administration introduced the Water Users Associations. The WUA assumes that all farmers would participate in the association and pay for the operation and maintenance of the drainage and irrigation system through assessed fees. A key responsibility of the WUA is to ensure that the canals were kept clear so that water could flow freely and easily.
While the rationale for such a management arrangement was good, the implementation of the plan left much to be desired. It is not clear to this writer how well the WUA is working in all the areas where they exist, but those with experience with it on parts of the East Coast regard the system as haphazard and dysfunctional.
Many of the farmers are not participating in the association because they have little or no knowledge of the organization. They do not know how these organizations were formed and how they arrived at their leadership. They have no clear idea of what their obligations are and what benefits they could expect from the WUA. The very people with the greatest incentive to see the system work well feel alienated from an arrangement that was intended for their benefit.
Not El Nino and La Nina
In delving deeper into the drainage and irrigation issue, it becomes obvious that the problem exceeds the unfriendly and unkindness of El Nino and La Nina. Sea level rise, while a threat is not causing the kind of damaging floods that are being witnessed in the coastal areas of the country. It is simply a poor response to a known problem.
The faster the administration acknowledges that it has a poor drainage and irrigation system, the quicker Guyana will stop the lingering floods. Hopefully, this matter will get the attention that it deserves from the leadership of this country.
