GHRA slams Agriculture Ministry on flooding situation

Jan 24, 2009 News

… Ministry says GHRA is a tool of convenience

The manner in which drainage and irrigation rehabilitation has been carried out since 2005 has generated frustration in affected communities, the Guyana Human Rights Association said yesterday.

An aerial view of excessive water in rice fields

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the Guyana Human Rights Association said that contracts for local drainage improvements have been awarded to groups which possessed few qualifications for the work.

The organization said that many D&I contracts awarded to community development committees, water users’ associations and farmers groups were poorly executed.

“These groups have become mechanisms for channelling funds to politically favoured elements in coastal communities.

This has resulted in sub-standard, incomplete and defective primary and secondary D&I works, undermining completion of the detailed programme of repair and re-habilitation set out by local and foreign engineers after the 2005 flood.”

Weak accountability, the body stated, was exposed by the manner in which farmers’ losses were treated.

“To date, losses have occurred in Corentyne, Black Bush Polder, Mahaicony, Mahaica, East and West Coast Demerara, the Canals Polders, Essequibo, Pomeroon and Moruca in Region One.

This constitutes the most widespread flood disaster in recent times, involving vast acreage.”

The flood also represents the third time some farmers have seen crops and livestock wiped out.

Losses in terms of crops and animals, homes and farm structures, water systems and household goods in communities stretching from Skeldon to Santa Rosa can probably be estimated in billions of dollars.

“Government response to date has seen the allocation of $100M., none of which will be available in cash payments.”

“No systematic consultation has taken place with affected farmers about schemes to offset their financial liabilities to banks, possible re-location, or developing long-term responses.”

In making recommendations, the GHRA said, the absence of effective accountability to communities over disaster responses robs them of any influence over decisions that affect them.

The organisation suggested that systematic community consultation on all primary and secondary D&I issues should replace the prevailing ‘dismissive culture’ with respect to local knowledge on technical matters.

Consideration should be given, GHRA stated, to re-directing the public funding normally made available for the Republic Anniversary celebrations to address the extensive flood-related financial hardship being experienced by so many citizens.

In a release issued late last evening, the Ministry of Agriculture said that intense historic rainfall levels of 2008/2009 recorded, which eventually led to the flooding in some communities along the coastline, is a matter of national concern.

The Ministry said that it is documented that livelihoods have been affected and discomfort experienced by a number of households in these areas; however, attempts at scoring cheap political points out of the suffering of the affected households, as espoused by the GHRA, should be seen as an affront to the people of these communities, many of whom are small, vulnerable farmers dependent on positive support for their sustenance.

It is evident that while the GHRA is promulgating a political attack line to foist itself on the affected and suffering households, its modus operandi smacks of poor judgment.

The narrative lacks basic data and serious analytical reality, which have become the primary functional characteristics of the GHRA.

According to the Ministry’s statement, the Georgetown-based Association is ‘out of touch’ with what obtains in Guyana.

The Ministry stated that, for its own convenience, the GHRA did not read of the myriad of approaches and interventions that the administration has been pursuing to alleviate the challenges of those affected by the high levels of rainfall.

The release fails to acknowledge, the statement said, that climate change is a global problem with catastrophic consequences that are slowly manifesting to affect everyone.

The Ministry added that the GHRA misses the numerous investments in infrastructural and capital works executed since 2005, including the regular deployment of excavators and pumping units to prevent potential problems resulting from high-intensity rains.

“The Agriculture Ministry is urging that the GHRA ‘come back to Mother Earth’ and conduct itself in the way it was designed, and that is to fight for human rights.”