The plight of a water shortage

Mar 20, 2010 Editorial

The prolonged dry spell is having a disastrous effect on crops and livestock alike. However, it is the effect on the crops that is the most serious.
Canals and other waterways have dried up; water for irrigation is unavailable and should the conditions continue cattle would soon die from thirst. Fortunately, animals have a way of drifting with the receding water and so far unless the pasturage is fenced the cattle have been doing just that.
Rice and sugar have been seriously affected to the extent that the sugar corporation is now saying that it cannot move cane to the estates. Last week it reported that it had to load less cane onto punts because of the water levels in the canals. The situation has been made worse since then.
The government, with a focus on the crops, has decided to pump water from an already low conservancy into the irrigation canals.
It had also warned farmers that it is not a free for all, that they would have to wait turns to irrigate their lands. And the pumping of water into the irrigation has proven to be a costly exercise—some $3.4 million per day.
But for all the problems with water shortage people in the wider society seem unconcerned. They are going about their business as though it is indeed business as usual. In the city, the level in the Shelter Belt has dropped significantly to the extent that the authorities at Guyana Water Authority had no option but to use water from the Lama Canal. This is to supplement water from the wells.
But should this dry spell continue for much longer then people would experience water rationing, something that has been promised but not introduced fully.
People are still washing cars and watering their lawns; they are still leaving taps to run even though there is no one there to use the water.
The sad thing is that GWI does not have the resources to monitor these things and take the appropriate action.
What is even scarier is that many of the farmers are so silent. It is as though they have accepted their lot although their losses to the drought are significant. Across the country there is a tale of dry land and even drier waterways. Crops are not growing to their maximum and some are beginning to wither.
This offers a grim reminder that conditions need to be created to cater for eventualities as are present at this time. Perhaps large farmers may wish to consider the construction of reservoirs. Indeed the reservoirs would occupy space but they would offer alternative sources of earning. There is always fish farming.
At the national level, the government never budgeted for spending on this activity so the money has to come from some source and indeed the source is the public treasury.
We experienced the floods of 2005 and we saw the impact on the budget. Despite all the foreign assistance we heard that the country lost more than 40 per cent of its gross domestic product.
This time around the loss should not be so high. A trip to the markets would reveal that there is still an abundance of green vegetables and ground provision.
The prices are still reasonable but how much longer this will hold will depend on the extent of the dry spell. But what is there represents the tail end of the last crop.
By the time this crop ends there will be a period when shortages will abound. It is only then that the impact of this dry spell will be appreciated. High prices will be the order of the day for a few months.
But what has this got to do with the present situation? People should be disciplined.
They should conserve. While water may be abundant in Guyana it is never in an unending supply. For its part, the authority should be able to monitor effectively and penalize where necessary.
The Agriculture Ministry, at least, showed that it was serious when it prosecuted four men who illegally accessed water and caused others to suffer.

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