All efforts are being made to ensure that the proposed Guyana Initiative Against Climate Change (GIACC) project gets off the ground, Linden Mayor Waneka Arrindell assured yesterday, while saying that the initiative could transform the town and the lives of hundreds of residents.
“This project is going to bring a lot opportunities to Lindeners and the Mayor and Town Council will try to do as much as it can to get that project into Linden,” Arrindell said moments after a meeting with officials of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Linden Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Development (LCICD) had ended.
The meeting was held despite a recent letter from NICIL indicating that it intends to terminate the land lease agreement with US-based Guyanese Sharon Benjamin-Fauconier, who proposed the project, due to several breaches of the contract.
The 503-acre plot of land borders the Kara Kara Creek in Linden, in the vicinity of the popular mined-out pond known locally as the Blue Lake. Benjamin-Fauconier, has accused NICIL of deliberately delaying the start of the project.
Arrindell told reporters at the Sophia headquarters of EPA that at this point the Council has not received a formal submission of the project proposal and this is a “big setback.”
She said that at yesterday’s meeting, it was decided through LCICD that “they are going to make sure that the investor understands that the first step is to bring that project to us. When that project comes to us, of course it goes to a statutory meeting and that meeting is what allows it to be passed.”
The Mayor explained that the Council sits with representatives from each constituency and after a discussion, a vote will be taken on that project. Once the voting occurs, that project is sent to EPA for an assessment of the environmental impacts on the resident, among other things, and for feedback to the council.
She said that it is anticipated that about 500 new jobs will be created and noted that they are badly needed.
Timeline
Asked about a timeline, Arrindell said that if the project reaches the Council early enough, it can make it onto the agenda of the Council meeting, which is to be held on the fourth Wednesday of this month (June 26th). She said that based on the feedback received, “it is something that we definitely want to look into but of course we need to see that in-depth proposal of what really the project is about…the council’s role is to look out for the health, well-being and economic development of the people of the township and we can by no means short change that and so we definitely need that proposal so we can see what’s happening.”
Benjamin-Fauconier and her husband, both born in Linden and both engineers, had said last month that from visits to their homeland, they saw the potential of what many had condemned for years. Consequently, they created the GIACC.
Business Strategist for GIACC Everton Forris, in giving a brief insight into the scope of works contained in the proposal, had explained that the company submitted its plan “describing its intentions for the site – the types of high technology and the technological skills it will bring. This includes the types of collaboration it would need though the University of Guyana and technical schools and the products planned to manufacture and export.”
“GIACC plans to manufacture two types of fertilisers at the site, both using renewable energy and raw materials of air and water. Fertiliser ‘packing’ is the least of what GIACC plans to do. 503 acres of land is not needed to pack fertiliser but [is] a large acreage for solar cells, solar steam generation and other plants needed to manufacture fertiliser in quantity. In addition to this, solar energy acreage for fuel cell and electric buses and energy to generate hydrogen for cooking gas was factored into the land-lease,” he added, while also observing that fertiliser is a product that will “bring needed foreign exchange to Guyana.”
Benjamin-Fauconier had said that now water-filled former bauxite pits could be transformed to produce clean energy in addition to the manufacturing entity which would produce and export fertilisers, among other products.
Sole concern
LCICD president Victor Fernandes, who was also part of the meeting, stressed that the private sector body welcomes business development. “Our sole concern is to see things happening in Linden, business having the enabling environment to grow and expand. We just don’t want to miss the opportunity of seeing a project of this nature just pass us by,” he said before stressing that he believes it is a viable project. He noted that like the Town Council, LCICD is in support of the whole project given the outcomes and the benefits that it could bring.
Meanwhile, the Mayor stressed that matters concerning the lease do not fall under the remit of the Council, while noting that the land belongs to NICIL. “The land issue is not on the Council,” she stressed.
Noting that the Council has “worked the project backwards,” she reminded that any project coming into the Township should first come to the Mayor and Town Council. “The problem that we have been having…is [that] lands have been given out across Linden over a period of time without knowledge of the Council and it is important that all of these agencies know that regardless of what you are going to be giving out lands for, the Council needs to be the first to know. So if an investor comes into the township, they need to come to us first.”
She said that even though Linden does not have an existing land use plan, it is understood that there are some places businesses are going to go and some places industries are going to go.
“…Even though we don’t have a plan, if we work hand in hand with those other agencies, then we are going to be able to put everything that we want in a specific place that doesn’t hinder development,” she said.
Arrindell went on to explain that the Council was unaware of anything concerning this plot of land until December last year when a road was built there. It was later realised that Benjamin-Fauconier had written to the Council stating that the road was on her property. It was from there that a conversation between her and the Council started. “We had no knowledge that the lands were given away prior,” she added.
Based on what she said, the issue of the lease was discussed with the NICIL representative during the meeting.
Both officials were unable to say whether NICIL still intends to terminate the lease
agreement, which was signed August 4th, 2017.
Fernandes told reporters that despite the uncertainty, “we will be continuing the process of communicating with the developer to go ahead and make the necessary arrangements. We are hoping that this will be an indication that we are ready to work.”
The Mayor described the meeting as a success, as the parties were able to come up with a “simple solution to what we thought was very hard.”
Benjamin-Fauconier had told Stabroek News that the project was being stymied by NICIL’s delay in notarising and filing the lease agreement although they have been paying rent for over a year. “I signed a lease with NICIL on August 4th, 2017, and their money comes out of my bank account every month and they provide me an invoice. We began running a number of intensive tests and measurements on the land, water and so on and when that was done, I wanted to begin my development late last year but it is the royal runaround to get the notarised lease,” she had said.
The woman has recounted the frustrations she endured in her quest to have the matter sorted out.
