Construction of 150 metres of rip-rap sea defence at Cane Garden, on the northern end of the Essequibo River island of Leguan is moving along and that project is 80% complete.
Speaking with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Ranger within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Sukhu Jettoo, said that the $44m works are to conclude by the end of October as only 17 metres of sea defence are to be built.
DPI said that the sea defence in Cane Garden borders a canal that separates the earthen embankment from farmlands. DPI spoke with multi-crop farmer, Rhamat Hussain on the importance of the project.
Hussain recalled the losses he experienced due to poor sea defences on the island and signalled his support for the project. “We had a flood couple mornings back that damaged a whole set of watermelon… thousands of watermelon and pumpkin and so forth. So, this is going to be a good help for the farmers here,” Hussain stated. According to Region 3 Regional Engineer, within the Public Infrastructure Ministry, Seenarine Nandram, a sea defence breach spanning 1 km along the earthen embankment occurred in 2010. This event led to the implementation of emergency works. Nandram noted that in 2015, the government began to upgrade the boulder face structures that were there with a rip-rap sea defence.
Over at Elizabeth Ann, a $9M sea defence project began recently and entails the construction of a concrete crest wall to replace the failed sandcrete structure.
