After a long delay, Annai hopes to restart its fish pond project which is being funded via the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF) with money earned from the Guyana’s forests partnership with Norway.
“We’re about to restart it,” Michael Williams, the former toshao of Annai who managed the project told Stabroek News. He said that the project would have long started but the Food and Agriculture Organisation wanted to use the project as a demonstration site and wanted more components to be added to the project. However, he said, no money was provided and the project stalled.
In 2013, Annai was among the first indigenous communities that received $5 million from the ADF for the development of a community-based and led initiative or business investment. The ADF is funded by the Government of Guyana with earnings from the partnership with Norway and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs.
Williams said that out of the $5 million provided for the project, $2.3 million remains and this sum would be used to purchase Tambaqui fingerlings and transport them to Annai.
He said that the sum would also cover feed and three persons to oversee the fish for six months.
Three ponds were constructed but they were advised to concentrate and stock one with 1000 fingerlings, he said. At the moment, the ponds have water but with drought conditions forecast for the rest of the year and possibly lasting until mid-next year, he said that a decision would have to be made with this in mind. He said that wells are available and this could be used to pump water into the ponds as needed.
He also pointed out that the funds have been available for quite a while and there is need to move along with the project.
Williams disclosed that the North Rupununi District Development Board will soon sign an agreement with the UNDP to be the oversight body for the Community Development Projects (CDP) in the North Rupununi “to ensure that the CDP’s are successful.”
In September last year, a $1.3 billion agreement between the government and the UNDP was inked to facilitate Phase II of the ADF project. Over 160 Amerindian communities are expected to benefit from access to funding to support their development.
A Government Infor-mation Agency (GINA) report had said that communities will receive funding of up to $5M each for each village’s development of a community-based project. All CDPs are approved by consensus or majority vote at village meetings, governed by Section 32 of the Amerindian Act of 2006. The UNDP is providing technical support to the project, including, administration of social, fiduciary and environmental safeguards.
GINA reported that during Phase I of the ADF project, 26 communities received disbursements, amounting to approximately $112 million in total, to implement their respective CDPs.
According to GINA, examples of CDPs implemented in Phase I, include the construction of a guest house at Santa Aratack; and the rehabilitation of a Multi-Purpose Centre at Moraikobai, for which sewing machines, computers and a printer, stove, freezer and kitchen utensils were also acquired.
The report added that there were several villages that focused on agriculture in Phase I, including Kurukubaru in Region Eight, where funding went to cattle rearing.
“This saw the completion of the construction of a ranch house and corral along with the purchase of a horse and cattle along with medications,” it said. In Rupertee village in Region Nine, five acres of cassava has been cultivated and a processing facility completed, it added.
