Rice farmers yesterday said that water is once again being pumped into their fields between Palmyra and Borlam villages, East Coast Berbice.
The water supply was turned on yesterday morning after the media reported that over 2,000 acres of rice fields were under threat due to the shut off of a GuySuCo pump, which is used for irrigation, over the past three weeks.
The farmers told Sunday Stabroek that officials from GuySuCo and other relevant agencies visited the area yesterday morning and the water supply was immediately turned on.
The farmers contacted this newspaper and noted that they were thankful for the water supply. While they noted that the water will take some time to reach all of the rice fields between Palmyra and Borlam, they said it still gives them peace of mind to know that the water supply has been restored.
On Saturday, Stabroek News reported that the farmers were worried that they would suffer millions in losses if the
disruption was not addressed immediately.
They said that they had been trying to pump water from the nearby trenches but it did not make much of a difference.
Manoj Singh, 44, of Don Robin Farm, Corentyne, who plants over 60 acres of land, had said GuySuCo and National Drainage and Irrigation Authority officials were contacted and they had promised that the pump would have been in operation last Thursday but nothing was done until yesterday.
