Corentyne businessman loses over 4,000 chickens

Aug 12, 2010 News

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A Berbice businessman lost over 4,000 chickens Tuesday night after his business was flooded from an unusually high spring tide. According to the businessman, Clent Nathoo, 44, of Number 67 Village, Corentyne, he has been complaining to sea defence and regional authorities about breaches in the area for some time now, but to no avail.
Technical officials of the Ministry of Public Works are now said to be making arrangements to visit the area to assess the situation.
Nathoo, who claims to have investments of over $300M, said he stands to lose tens of millions if the situation recurs.
His recent chicken loss is estimated at almost $1M.
He managed to save 2000 from the 6000-plus stock he had in one pen. All told he had over 13,000 chickens at various stages of growth.
According to Nathoo, he has been in the chicken business since last year but this was the first time that disaster had befallen him. He estimates that his entire investment in the chicken business is worth $25M.
Apart from the chicken farm, Nathoo also has a $65M ice factory in the same compound.
Additionally, the businessman has three fishing boats, three trucks, a $6M generator, a well with filter and his own wind-assisted solar panel system.
All except the boats are in the same compound and under threat if the water comes back any higher.
The entrepreneur said he has been appealing to the authorities for over a year now and complaining to them about the high tide and erosion in the area, but no one paid him any heed.
“I have been complaining to the respective people since last year, but all I have been getting is promises. I told them the place has been flooding, but they don’t care. Now the water is getting higher and people are suffering.”
The businessman said that he spent a significant sum of money and over 110 truckloads of materials to build up the land. He said there is nothing else he could do but to continue to beg for help. About 20 workers are attached to the business directly.
The Hydromet Service of the Ministry of Agriculture issued an advisory on Tuesday, cautioning residents in vulnerable low lying riverain and coastal communities, especially those living in close proximity of sea and river defence, to be alert as spring tides are in effect.
According to the Hydromet Service, the spring tide alert will be effective until Sunday.
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Customs Officers tasked with preventing illegal use of precursor chemicals

– Rohee lauds coordination among agencies

With drug traffickers resorting to the use of unconventional ways of plying their trade it is imperative that the local law enforcement agencies intensify their coordination to effectively arrest the dilemma.
This was the charge given to officers of the Customs and Trade Administration of the Guyana Revenue Authority by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee at the opening of the second two-day training programme on narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, precursor chemicals identification and control.
The programme is being held in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Government Analyst Food and Drug Department.
Precursor chemicals, while not illegal, could be used by persons to manufacture illegal drugs as well as explosives, and if not detected early enough could fuel a drug trade that may be hard to detect.

Some of these chemicals are legally imported to manufacture products such as soap powder.
The Home Affairs Minister said that while the human resources available to Guyana to effectively man its borders is limited, the people expect that those vested with such responsibilities do so with zeal, enthusiasm, passion and a high level of commitment.
The GRA, and more precisely the Customs and Trade Administration, is part of the Task Force that deals with the illegal trafficking of narcotics and as such the minister said, it is imperative that they collaborate with other stakeholders to effective carry out their tasks.
He noted that coordination among the many agencies of the Task Force is increasing daily and this status quo should be intensified.
“We have no choice but to do so because if we want to increase our effectiveness, alertness and track record in terms of interdiction and prosecution, obviously we have to have greater and greater coordination. It is in the interest of the nation for us to have greater coordination. What is the point of having several law enforcement agencies operating in the country and the left hand don’t know what the right hand is doing?” Rohee said.
He stressed the importance of the training programme, since the public expectations are very high when it comes to public officials.
“We cannot fault the people for this high degree of expectation,” Rohee said.
He however warned against the lure of corruption pointing out that the weakest link in the fight against the trafficking of drugs and the movement of explosives is the human factor.
To this end he pointed to the integrity testing implemented by the government to address certain sections of the law enforcement agencies to provide a greater sense of credibility to the state, the country and the individuals who are executing certain functions.
“You can’t bribe a camera, you can’t bribe a dog, you can’t pass an envelope to some piece of equipment, but you can do so with an individual,” Minister Rohee stated.
Head of the Analyst Food and Drug Department, Marilyn Collins, emphasised that the Customs and Trade Administration is Guyana’s first line of defence and is a very important entity to monitor the importation and movement of precursor chemicals.
She echoed the sentiments of Minister Rohee, pointing out that regardless of how many resources are available to a country, if the ports are not manned properly, that country will go nowhere.
Collins pointed to the fact that precursor chemicals are important to the persons who are bent on producing illegal drugs and it is therefore the task of the Customs and Trade Administration to stifle their activities.
She pointed out that it takes very little to set up clandestine laboratories to produce illegal drugs and therefore it is imperative that the supply of the chemicals is limited, if not eliminated, to these manufacturers.
According to the head of the Food and Drug department, it is almost impossible to just look at chemicals and tell what they are, since many persons could disguise them.
So it is with this in mind that training is important to help to ensure that chemicals are not diverted for the purpose of making illegal drugs. Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur acknowledged that the time has come for the Customs and Trade Administration to be more proactive in the fight to stamp out the manufacture and trafficking of illegal drugs.
He noted that the mandate of the GRA is not only to collect revenue, and urged the participants to make full use of the training programme since the success of the entity depends to a large extent on them.

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