Guyana lacks capacity to construct Hope canal

Jan 08, 2009 News

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Neither the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority nor the Ministry of Public Works has the capacity to design or construct the imminent Conservancy Relief Channel at Hope, East Coast Demerara.
This was revealed yesterday by President Bharrat Jagdeo who added that the design for the project will be done by a private contractor.
“I want it to be done by a good international engineering firm,” he told the media.
He said that the firm will conduct a short study that should take just under a month, to determine the design parameters.
Already an advertisement has appeared in the newspapers inviting bids for the engineering design of the proposed canal.
During the press conference, the Head of State said that following the establishment of the design parameters, the contractor will then have to design the sluices at both ends of the canal, the roads, and the bridges before the tender for construction released.
“We will tender this out to a private contractor…neither of the Ministries (Agriculture or Public Works) has the capacity to do this work because this will require major construction,” he added.
Earlier in the week, the President announced that the project will cost some $3B, pointing out that cuts will be made to other developmental projects in order to reallocate resources to the building of the structure.
Commenting on his earlier announcement, the Head of State yesterday said that now that the budget profile has been identified all expenditure will have to be absorbed.
“This goes in now as a priority expenditure…It means that some other areas will have to fall out…Once this enters it displaces something else we would have spent on.”
He added that he has since spoken to the Minister of Finance, adding that monies have been incorporated into the budget for the project.
“We hope that this project runs into next year so by June next year we hope that we can complete it.”
Once the design is done properly, construction will commence within the next six months.
This, the Head of State said, will allow for water to continuously be released into the Atlantic, easing pressure on the conservancy dam.
Already communities within the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary areas are struggling to deal with excessive rainfalls, he noted, stating that when water from the conservancy is released it compounds the problems of residents.
“On the East Coast we need to better maintain our drainage system, we need to better integrate the drainage system because the villages are not all at the same level.”
He noted that because the system is not integrated there is no rapid outflow of water, causing problems in low lying villages.
“I do not want to give people a false sense of comfort because we will have accumulation in some of these villages if we have excessive rainfall.”
The Head of State added that the integration of the drainage system will facilitate greater pumping capacity and more gravity flow.
In the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary and East Coast Demerara areas, the conservancy dam is often threatened.
“Right now we have the water almost to the maximum…it is close to 59GD …if we blow water continuously into the Demerara River and if we do that early on the East Coast we will flood the people in the Mahaica, Mahaicony and Abary so we have this unusual situation where we wait until the water accumulates right up to the edge of the dam before we start blowing.”
He said that at present, the discharge of water from the conservancy is done on a basis of ‘hope’.
This is untenable, he added, since the release of water is based on “just waiting for fortune”. Unfortunately, fortune has not favoured us because the rain keeps falling, especially in the backlands.
The Guyana Defence Force was asked to do an aerial assessment of the creeks to determine whether or not they are blocked, but according to the President, this is not the case since no major impediment was seen.
The Conservancy Relief Canal will be a minimum of 80 feet wide.
Preliminary works have been carried out with the identification of a 300-foot wide reserve for the project.
This canal will be east of where the school is at Hope.
The new structure will not go where the Hope outfall is; it will be a separate formation.
This structure is expected to bring relief to residents of Mahaica and Mahaicony communities that are under flood threat each time the water levels in EDWC goes up to a critical point.
In the latter part of 2008, persons who were building houses at the Hope Housing Scheme were stopped, as a decision to facilitate the release of excess water from the EDWC through that neighbourhood was made.
In 2004, Hope was identified as the area to relocate squatters from West Berbice. Several persons from flood hit communities were also given house lots in that area.

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