The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) yesterday said that it is doing daily monitoring of the dredging in the Demerara River by NRG Holding Inc.
In a statement yesterday, MARAD said that before the start of the dredging exercise on July 1st, 2022, a Dredge Management Plan (DMP) was submitted, as required, by NRG Holding Inc.
After the go-ahead was given for the project, the DMP document, along with a conditional approval by MARAD, became the primary source document used for monitoring by the agency.
“MARAD wishes to clearly state that with the daily monitoring and site inspections of the dredging operations, a close watch is kept on the dumping of the spoils [mud] ensuring dump is only made in the designated areas which have been stipulated in the DMP and the conditional approval”, the statement said.
To date, it said that there have been no incidents of dumping outside of the stipulated area.
This first phase of this project entails the deepening and widening of the existing channel to 10 meters Chart Datum and widening to 100 meters bottom width, MARAD said.
The main ships’ channel is also being extended to about five miles beyond the existing pilot boarding ground area.
MARAD also reminded everyone with vested interests, that fishing is not permitted in the Demerara ships’ channel where the dredging is currently ongoing. It added that there are no approved or charted fishing grounds within the identified spoil dumping area.
MARAD’s statement appears to be a response to a news item in Wednesday’s edition of Stabroek News which reported complaints by fishermen that their fishing grounds have been contaminated by the mud being dredged up. They said it has affected their livelihood.
Stabroek News was taken on Tuesday morning to the area by one of the affected fishermen. The area is approximately one and a half miles north east, following the Demerara main ship channel.
The artisanal fishermen from the East and West Bank Demerara believe they are too uneducated to have a voice.
“The dredging raising up all these things (trash and seaweed) on the ocean floor and that’s what we finding in our fish pens and just little bit of fish,” said a fisherman from Diamond, who wished to remain anonymous.
For the East Bank fishermen, the majority of their catch is now trash, leaves and weeds and a few fish to distribute among four fishermen.
The shore base, which is being undertaken by Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase Incorporated (VEHSI), is a component of the Port of Vreed-en-Hoop project. VEHSI is a joint venture between NRG Holdings Incorporated—a Guyanese-owned consortium comprising Hadi’s World Incorporated, National Hardware Limited and ZRN Investments Incorporated—and Jan De Nul, a Luxembourg-based engineering and construction firm that specialises in marine services, offshore services, civil engineering, environmental management activities and project development.
