As a result of a prolonged drought, Guyana is now battling an increase of wildfires countrywide, and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday stressed that the livelihoods of communities are being affected with farmers even requesting the help of accessing irrigation water.
He said that the drought has killed crops in some communities countrywide and even on the, “coastal belt we’ve had many communities that have asked us for water, irrigation water.”
According to him, he met with a group of farmers from Region Three who informed him that they were running out of irrigation water.
“I said how can we get water for your irrigation and then one guy said you can pump it over from the conservancy and then the rest of the farmers said that the conservancy is practically dry at that point… The water isn’t there to pump, so simply there isn’t water in the area to sustain irrigation and irrigation is the lifeblood of agriculture, if you don’t have irrigation it affects agriculture,” Jagdeo said.
The vice president said that this is an issue that has affected communities on the coast and in the hinterland where crops have dried and then fires have affected some of the farmlands.
“So the CDC is fully mobilised,” he continued. “Last night they were dealing with evacuation of one community because of the smoke and providing shelter for people… [Yesterday] at about 6 am I spoke to the regional chairman of Region Three. He is going into that community to look at what’s happening there. I spoke to the head of the CDC last night. They are going to be there.”
Additionally, Jagdeo said, the government is supplying hampers to some of the communities in Region Nine where most of their crops were affected.
“And those places people mainly deal with subsistence farming so the issue is that they just don’t lose income, they lose food and therefore we have supplied hampers, we’re sending in cassava from the coast to some of the hinterland communities,” he added.
The fires, which have been caused by the prolonged dry season, are bringing untold hardships to many people, he said, pointing out that they are also causing health problems. The Ministry of Health is fully aware, he said “and they are mobilised to address any situation and if anyone is affected health-wise by the smoke inhalation and all of these other issues associated with these fires they should seek medical attention or get in touch with the ministry immediately.”
Meanwhile, Jagdeo stressed that it is important for citizens to understand that there is very little that can be done about the prolonged drought since it is not only happening in Guyana. “It’s a phenomenon associated with climate change, something we have spoken about for a very long time. The extreme weather that we will continue to experience; that is why we are spending so much of our resources on adaptation measures,” he stated.
He added that over US$2 billion, which will be raised from the sale of carbon, will be spent in the country on adaptation, “outside of the part that goes directly to the Amerindian villages. And that is to manage water resources in periods when we have excess water to get rid of it so that it doesn’t cause flooding and then to make accommodations, like more reservoirs etc for the prolonged drought season.”
Jagdeo stated that regardless of what happens globally the effects of climate change will still be experienced. He stressed that the government will continue to invest to tackle these issues.
