Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha last week said that works on the Adventure, Corentyne Pump Station are 90% completed.
Last year September, Stabroek News carried a letter by a resident of Adventure which stated that almost a year had passed and the project was stalled at that time.
Mustapha when contacted last week for an update explained that the $800m project, which he had said was a multi-year one, is 90% completed and should come into operation sometime this year.
According to a source close to the project, engineers from the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) were on site at the location recently. Additionally, Stabroek News was told that part of the project is to also clean the canal and that is currently ongoing as well.
The letter writer in September last year had said, that “Work is stagnant. There seems to be no hurry in finishing it… A building or structure has not been constructed for the pump and there is no evidence of a pump for the project. Judging from how other pump stations work, the Adventure project is not even 10% completed, much less 50%. It raises some questions.”
The writer added: “It was supposed to mitigate flooding in the Black Bush Polder area and Cookrite Savannah but being incomplete, resulting in floods earlier this year in surrounding areas. This is the area that was inundated by floodwater in May 2021 turning it into a large lake. Stabroek News provided extensive coverage of the flooding and also carried an editorial on mishandling of infrastructure projects and failure to deter cultivation in the Cookrite Savannah”.
At that time, sources in the region said that the project was stalled for a while due to “technical issues” but works had recommenced.
Also back in September, sources identified the contractor as Anil Sawh of D. Sawh Mechanical Workshop. When contacted then Sawh lashed out at this newspaper, stating that he would be contacting his lawyers with regard to the letter carried in the newspaper.
Prior to the awarding of the project, Mustapha had committed that two pumps at a cost of $1.2 billion would be constructed. Early last year he had said, “I made the commitment when I was in Black Bush Polder that we will build a pump in Black Bush, an irrigation pump there, and that we will have a drainage pump at Adventure so all the Black Bush Polder outlets will have pumps now.”
