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We are beginning to feel the effects of climate change -say farmers
By Mondale Smith
Cultivating over 30 acres of land Maria D’Andrade, a resident of Three Brothers Village is one of the many farmers in the Waini River area.
Residents of Waini in the North West District, Region One, are reporting that they have begun to feel the effects of climate change.
Some farmers have complained to Kaieteur News that as a result of climate change, the Waini beach in the area of Louie Creek has eroded significantly.
This has resulted in their fresh water supply being infiltrated with salt water and this they say is affecting many critical areas including drinking water supply and some farmlands.
One female farmer said, “Climate change killing out we crops and it will eventually hamper the crab-wood oil and other projects, unless the authorities come up with a plan for our area.”
One effect is already being felt as the crab-wood seeds used for creating oil from that area, are now often falling into the salt water which causes them to lose their ability to produce oil.
The farmers noted, too, that as opposed to other areas in Guyana, the beach is all natural. There is no sea defence and erosion is now taking its toll.
However, the boat operators unaware of the possible effects of the salted water to the farmers and their crops, are reporting that they are happy with the developments. As far as they are concerned, the erosion of the beach has made their travel time much shorter through the river as opposed to the many hours at sea.
But residents are not amused. They say it is affecting their fresh water supply and crops and there are a slew of rippling effects.
Cultivating over 30 acres of land, Maria D’Andrade, a resident of Three Brothers Village, is one of the many farmers in the Waini. She said that ‘plenty’ negative things are happening because of Climate change.
“You getting too much water from the rains and then when the sun comes, the land gets extremely dry and the plants can’t grow much because the area is too big to water with a hose.”
She said that as part of planting procedures, in her location, farmers normally lock the water in the trenches at a certain level, however, when it does not rain, the water is depleted and now the water collected is a bit salty.
Speaking of the salted water in the Louie Creek, she opines that there may be a breach by the sea side as result of the erosion and as such “that is pushing in the salt water into the Waini.”
She said, water was sourced from the Creek for farming before, but recently, “You can’t bring water into the farm lands because it salt.” This, she said, is not affecting the farms as much as it is affecting the crab wood oil business.
She said the authorities may be able to help by building a sea defence, since the salt water comes in especially when the tide is high. Another strange happening is the sudden influx of deep sea fishes in the river, which has become more prominent since the salt water started entering the river. “The water is extremely salt and this (has been) happening since last year,” D’Andrade said.
Some fishermen from that region are complaining that they are “getting sea fish coming into the river now and the fresh water fish them stop biting. No more fishes, but more down the river the water isn’t salty, so something wrong.” Efforts to contact the regional chairman for a comment were unsuccessful.
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