Damaged pumps at Black Bush Polder (BBP) and Crabwood Creek on the Corentyne have resulted in water levels in the irrigation canals being significantly low and rice farmers worrying about the outcome of their crop.
Farmers are desperately trying to get water to pump into their fields as this new crop is at a crucial stage. The farmers told Stabroek News that the young plants have already started to “burn” from the heat.
To make matters worse, the drainage trenches from where they might have been able to access water have been inundated with saltwater.
A large-scale farmer said he sowed 300 out of his 600 acres of rice about three weeks ago. About 150 acres need water and the “only thing that can save it is the rain,” he said.
Farmers from BBP lamented that government was supposed to pump water from the Canje Creek into the irrigation canal to keep the level high.
The water then goes into another trench from which farmers pump into their fields.
Two pumps usually operate at BBP but farmers learnt that the “gear box” on one of the pumps was damaged about three weeks ago.
One of the two pumps at Manarabisi, Skeldon has also encountered problems and a “back-up, hydro-flow pump was sent there but it is pumping at a slower rate.”
The frustrated farmers said “if de pump had to repair, government shoulda do it during de time we been reaping. Like dem din realise dey gon gat to use de pumps because ah suh much rainfall before.
“It look like dem just left down the pump… Dem need to speed up dem
job because farmers suffering… Dis holding everybody up.”
Regional Chairman David Armogan, when contacted, told this newspaper
that government is aware that the “whole crop is in jeopardy…” He said efforts were being made and that the pumps should be working again by next week.
He emphasised that “we are adhering to government procedure to get the money approved first and then do the project and that takes time.”
According to him, “We could have done the work because of its emergency nature and then go to Parliament afterwards to get the money cleared. But with the new dispensation, we are unable to do so now.”
Armogan said too, “That is why Lionel Wordsworth [Chief Executive Officer of the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority – NDIA] got accused… He was breaking the procurement procedure during emergency cases just to help people.”
Noting that “this is a critical time for the farmers,” the chairman said a strong delegation of “51 farmers visited the president [Donald Ramotar] at his office on Thursday.”
Farmers from Lesbeholden said they “went ahead and plant” hoping that they would be able to irrigate their crops. They stressed that “farmers losing millions of dollars every day” because of this situation.
A farmer said he had invested a lot of money to prepare his 100-acre farm over one month ago and has been waiting on water to start sowing. He still hopes that the pump would be fixed soon.
Armogan said the “NDIA is looking to put in an additional pump at BBP before the end of the year to assist the farmers who are planting in the front lands.”
Meanwhile, to add to their woes, farmers said too that saltwater, which would do more damage to the crop, seeped through creases on one of the doors attached to the drainage trench.
The chairman said the contractor did not do a good job with constructing the doors to the outlet and that had resulted in seepage from one.
The problem has been rectified to prevent more water from entering and “as soon as there is enough water in the system we would blow it [the saltwater] out.”
