Dear Editor,
In an SN letter of Jan 19, Mohamed Khan drew attention to the lack of irrigation water to cultivate the 35,500 acres of rice lands in the Tapakuma Project, Region 2 (‘Water should have been pumped from the Pomeroon since last year…’).
The Tapakuma Drainage and Irrigation Project (TDIP) was designed to provide supplemental irrigation needs for the 35,500 acres of rice lands along the Esequibo Coast through stored water during the rainy season in three main lakes, and by pumping from the Arapiaco Creek, a branch of the Pomeroon River, into the Tapakuma Lake. All lakes are connected to a main feeder canal at the back of the cultivated areas. Regulators conveniently located on the main canal release gravity irrigation into subsidiary feeder canals for the various cultivations, usually on a rotational basis.
Water levels in the lakes and main canal have to be monitored closely particularly during the rice planting and growing seasons, and maintained at pre-determined levels to enable the rice fields to be irrigated by gravity. When the water levels drop below operation level requirements the Dawa pumping station starts pumping water working 24/7 to maintain full supply level in the main canal.
Neglect by the Minister of Agriculture, mismanagement and incompetence by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) a Division of the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the RDC have been responsible for the predicament of the farmers. The operation and maintenance of the TDIP was allowed to deteriorate to the extent that the infrastructure is falling apart, the irrigation pumps are working on and off because of fuel shortage and water levels in the main canal have been allowed to drop to elevations too low for quick build-ups to facilitate gravity irrigation, unless there is supplemental rainfall to assist with the topping up. There is plenty of fresh water now in the Pomeroon River awaiting to be pumped to irrigate the parched rice fields along the coast, but this had to be done well ahead of the anticipated needs of the farmers and not on a crisis basis.
Climate changes due to El Niños do have an impact on the water needs (as well as the flooding) of Essequibo rice farmers, but if the TDIP is managed and operated in accordance with its guidelines much of the tragedy now being experienced by the farmers would have been avoided.
Finally, the Mainstay Lake has its regulator which releases fresh water from the lake into the main canal, closed. Is it the owner of the Mainstay Resort or the NDIA/NDC which controls the operation of this lake?
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
