Several projects in a much-hyped scheme from 2009 to provide alternative livelihoods for several Amerindian communities appear to have been abandoned and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs has been silent on the projects.
The $88M National Hinterland Secure Livelihoods projects in Region One, have been stalled or abandoned according to residents. A visit by Stabroek News last month to the much vaunted Tobago Hill fish ponds confirmed that that project had been abandoned. Since then, the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai and Permanent Secretary, Nigel Dharamlall, have declined to speak to this newspaper despite numerous attempts.
The Hassar fish pond project embarked on by the government to provide a livelihood for the remote Region One Amerindian community, Tobago Hill, became a white elephant three years after its implementation. Another project, a pineapple farm at Whitewater has also been abandoned because the farmers were unable to find a market for their produce.
During a visit to Tobago Hill by Stabroek News on July 10 the hassar ponds had to be examined from a distance because the bridge to access the area where the four ponds are located had floated away because of torrential rainfall. The hut that was built to house the caretaker of the project was also abandoned.
Toshao Patrick Thomas, who has held the post for the past two years, inherited the unsuccessful fish pond project from former Toshao, Edmund Santiago. He explained that when the ponds were first set up, there was much that went wrong in terms of construction, drainage and even the feasibility of such an activity given that the people were inexperienced in aquaculture. He said the first set of Hassar fingerlings, some 2,000 or so, that were placed in the ponds in 2010 mostly died and that no benefit had been derived from the project since its implementation.
The minister had disputed a report by Stabroek News on the poor state of the project in 2012. The minister had insisted that there was fish in the ponds, but that they could not be seen because they were bottom dwellers. The report accused this newspaper of misrepresenting the situation on the ground despite the consensus of the villagers and Santiago, the then Toshao. During July’s visit by Stabroek News it was clear that the project had been abandoned.
The other projects included a pineapple farm at Wauna, a crab rearing pen at Imbotero, more than 40 acres of passion fruit farms at Whitewater, Hotoquai, Hobodai and Wauna and honey projects in Arukamai, Hobodai and Hotoquai.
