Wednesday’s signing of a US$3m grant deal between Guyana and the World Bank is a significant development on two counts. First, it will greatly expand drainage westward from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) and it unlocks more funds from the forest protection deal with Norway which has seen slow progress.
On the downside, a project as important as this has taken nearly five years from conceptualisation under the Norway deal to the signing of an agreement. There is also still a long way to go in terms of the identification of a contractor and the execution and supervision of works.
Moreover, the irony of the signing at this juncture will not escape those who have been deeply involved in the country’s drainage and irrigation quandaries over the last 20 years, particularly the last 10. The signing of a deal which will improve the draining of fresh water into the Demerara River is coming amid the severest El Nino phenomenon in decades when the agricultural belt is literally crying out for irrigation water and crops are dying, at risk of perishing and yields are expected to be lower.
So whereas in June last year, the country was battling flash flooding in the city and deluges up and down the coast, eight months later it has been enveloped by the aridity of a strong El Nino and lands are parched throughout the country following the sparse rainfall in the traditionally productive November/December.
This is the dilemma that has buffeted Guyana particularly since 2005, the year of the devastating Great Flood which displaced thousands and accounted for damage equating to nearly 60% of the Gross Domestic Product. While a combination of factors was responsible for the severity of flooding, the key causation was seen as residing in the EDWC which had been severely overtopped during the heavy January 2005 rains. This overtopping is what was seen as responsible for the deep, weeks-long floods in 2005 on the lower East Coast and other parts.
So since 2005, much money has been expended in ensuring that the EDWC wasn’t overtopped or breached. What has essentially happened is that the country has wasted large sums dollars pumping fresh water out to sea as a result of the long-term poor management of the EDWC. Had the EDWC been better managed prior to 2005, siltation within it would have been better controlled and internal drainage pathways would have been more efficient enabling much more water to be held and quicker exit to the Demerara River whenever necessary. In addition, its dams would have been more secure, reducing the risk of a collapse or breach as opposed to having to be strengthened in a costly project which is still to get underway. It is a signal lesson for Guyana on how crucial it is to manage important infrastructure like the EDWC.
This is particularly so as it could lead to costly and dubious decisions like the one to construct the $3.6b Hope Canal on the East Coast which was the then PPP/C government’s reaction to the threat posed by the EDWC. That project was hopelessly delayed and was still not completely finished when pressed into operation last June when floods threatened. It is yet unclear whether the project is sound in engineering and hydrological terms but amid the drought it sits today with very little purpose and with a high maintenance cost.
In what is supposed to be a nascent green economy large amounts of fossil fuels have been utilised particularly since 2005 to expel fresh water to the sea which in better circumstances could be stored for periods such as the current drought or sold to less resourced Caribbean countries and further afield.
The APNU+AFC government in November last year hosted Dutch experts for a broad view of the drainage challenges facing the country. The Head of the team, Mr Rob Steijn made the salient point about the need for astute management of the drainage system and outlined seven broad areas for attention: upgrade modelling capability; increase flood resilience of people and businesses; upgrade dredging capabilities and improve flow efficiency; develop long-term plans; develop and test a pilot project; develop and apply a life cycle approach for the drainage assets; and data management through digitisation. A final report for action was to have been presented to the administration and it is hoped that this will be addressed urgently.
Unfortunately, the 2016 budget presentation by the Minister of Finance gave no indication of what plans are in train to address drainage and irrigation needs in a comprehensive way and there is no immediate sign of this being in the works. Suffice to say that the country cannot continue to lurch between wet and dry cycles, each with its own severe cost and with the drainage and irrigation systems showing little resilience. The debate this year about whether the Dawa Conservancy in Essequibo had been judiciously managed to cater for this drought is a case in point.
Serious decisions have to be made by this administration via flow studies and hydrological investigations as to the optimal storage needs for agriculture and other uses and whether the extant conservancies can meet this capacity while retaining the ability to drain in emergency situations. This is a tall order but absolutely essential to insulating the people and the economy from the ravages of El Nino/La Nina and other systems in between.
