Dear Editor,
Accusations are mounting against a farmer in Region 2 for violating the law by cutting the canal dam to drain his some 50 acres of a virgin plot in the backlands of the Middlesex-Vilvoorden area.
Before resorting to this line of action, the farmer was reported to have been engaged in the damaging of government structures which were installed for the drainage of the canal water especially for rice farmers in the front lands. It was learnt that the Chairman of the Good Hope/Pomona RDC had given verbal permission to the farmer to set up his own structure to facilitate the drainage and irrigation of his farmlands but even though this was done it was found to be ineffective.
The farmer is presently engaged in the cultivation of a diversity of crops beyond the canal dam without providing his own drainage and irrigation facilities.
If the canal water does not drop to a certain level there is no way out for it to recede from his farm, and it is for this reason he is doing the cutting. But in so doing, he is endangering the livelihood of hundreds of rice farmers who depend on the canal water for the proper growth of their crop between Riverstown and Supenaam.
With the cutting of the dam, it is not possible for rice farmers to get water conveniently as happened in the past, and this was never the case before he started farming there.
It would be useful for the relevant authorities to take the appropriate action in this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Mohan Ram
