With large acreage of paddy across the rice-growing belt under threat due to a lack of water, blame is being cast at officials who were warned months ago of the strong El Nino but took no action particularly in relation to pumping water into the Tapakuma Conservancy in Region Two.
“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 (Regional Democratic Council) have been responsible for the predicament of the farmers,” engineer Charles Sohan said in a letter to Stabroek News recently.
Stabroek News reported two weeks ago that thousands of acres of paddy across Regions two, three, five and six are under threat due to a lack of adequate water and full blown water rationing is on the agenda if the situation worsens. Region Two Chairman Devanand Ramdatt had told Stabroek News that priority is being given to farmers who have cultivated their crop and warned that farmers who have not yet sown their crop to not do so.
“We are calling on the REO [Regional Executive Officer] to make sure he has a strong monitoring system, the rangers and overseers that they closely monitor. They should meet with farmers, we met with the GRDB [Guyana Rice Development Board]. We asked to do an advisory, if farmers haven’t ploughed and sown that they should not proceed to do that at this time because priority would have been given to famers who have sown their crop. I think generally the NDIA, the rangers and overseers, the superintendents from the department have to be at the statutory meeting of the RDC. It was indicated that they (also) have to be in the fields,” he had said.
Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder has also advised rice farmers to desist from planting new crops. “If you haven’t planted already, don’t plant because you probably wouldn’t get water for the rice to grow properly and we’re trying to have enough water to save the crop you already have,” he said last week.
In a letter to Stabroek News concerning the situation in Region Two, Sohan said that the operation and maintenance of the Tapakuma Drainage and Irrigation Project (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,” he wrote.
The engineer said that the TDIP was designed to provide supplemental irrigation needs for the 35,500 acres of rice lands along the Essequibo 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.
Feeder canal
“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,” he noted.
“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,” Sohan said.
He noted that 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.
Sohan also pointed out that the Mainstay Lake has its regulator which releases fresh water from the lake into the main canal, closed. He questioned whether it is the owner of the Mainstay Resort or the NDIA/NDC which controls the operation of the Mainstay Lake.
Meantime, another stakeholder Edward Gonsalves said that the warning to Region 2 farmers to delay planting is a “brave statement made by the authorities who I am sure finally realize there is so little water remaining in Tapakuma that it is better for those who have not planted to sit out the crop and give those who already have a crop in the ground a better chance of reaping.”
He said that while increasing pumping at Dawa from the Pomeroon into Tapakuma may sound good, it would not be long before salt water from the ocean is sucked into the Pomeroon then into the tributaries that feed the pump station.
“When salt water reaches Dawa the pumps will be shut down. Meanwhile residents along the Pomeroon will justifiably raise hell because their drinking and irrigation water is now salty,” he said.
“My gripe is with the NDIA and RDC officials who were warned months ago that this El Niño would be very strong. These officials seem to completely lack institutional knowledge to recall the water shortage in 1997-98 which led to crop failure up and down the Essequibo coast. Individuals such as ex-Jr Minister of Agriculture Ali Baksh was Region 2 Chairman at the time and had to face the bullets fired at him by a host of disgruntled farmers. Could he not have advised the RDC to turn on the pumps or is he now suffering from memory loss,” Gonsalves questioned.
“The point is the pumps at Dawa should have been filling Tapakuma way back in September and October when there was abundant fresh water in the Pomeroon, not now when there is only salt water to pump,” he declared. He also warned that the same situation could happen elsewhere in the country.
Pointing to Black Bush Polder, Gonsalves recalled that the Mibicuri pump station was shut down in 1972-73 when the Canje river ran salty during an El Niño event ranked as strong.
