-until concerns are addressed
Farmers at Hope/Dochfour are not convinced that all is being done to protect them from the ravages of flooding during the rainy season and want their concerns addressed before the $3 billion Hope Canal project is completed. They said they are mulling legal action.
Stabroek News caught up with one of the aggrieved farmers, Roy Doodnauth on Sunday last who shared some of his concerns about what could happen should drainage not be addressed. “We feel that they supposed to do the drainage and irrigation system before they dig the canal or even before they complete the work,” said Doodnauth. “Suppose when they finish the canal and they go to do the drainage, they can’t do it and the area can’t drain properly,” he said. “Therefore when they solve one problem they would be creating another one,” he said. “They will make here become a flooded area every time rain fall,” he said.
He noted that if weather permits, the work will be finished by June next year. “But if weather don’t permit and they can’t finish it, we will suffer because the kind of drainage they are digging can’t work for this area and as a result it will always be flooded.
“I think the opposition should really come and get a firsthand look at what is going on in here with this project. Because this is something like the Skeldon factory, where they always defend it but cannot get the problem fixed,” he said.
Doodnauth said that three times he applied for additional land so he could continue his farming and he has not received any response. “Up to now nobody nah seh nothing,” he said.
He said that he and some other farmers will be seeking legal advice to see whether they could stop the project until their concerns about drainage and compensation for land are fully and satisfactorily addressed. “When they could provide drainage and irrigation for we, then they can proceed and finish the canal,” he said.
He said whenever the project is finished and the problems remain unresolved, then it is not only Hope/Dochfour that will suffer but the entire East Coast “if something should happen.
“Since the government start with this canal, farmers and residents are suffering in this area, whether sun hot or rain fall and nobody assisting us,” he said. “Look I had to pump water two times to save my crops,” he said. “Now water hardly deh so next two weeks I got to pump back water in there,” he said.
He said that the Hope/Dochfour area serves about 80 farmers who own about 1,000 acres farmland.
Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy, during a recent tour of the canal, noted that work has also begun on the eight feet high embankment that will line both sides of the canal. Ramsammy, when asked about drainage and irrigation infrastructure for farmers, said there is irrigation but they will have to create drainage canals on both sides and this will have to be done when the canal is completed.
The ministry said that $2 billion has been spent so far on the project and that 75% of the channel for the Hope Canal was completed.
The minister said that the project is proceeding although it had suffered some challenges for various reasons “but we are now ensuring that the work is completed on a timely basis.”
Chief Executive Officer of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth revealed that there was less than 1 km remaining to be dug at the southern end of the 10.3 km canal to meet the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) and noted that this will be completed by the end of October.
