Latest update April 2nd, 2025 8:00 AM
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Trouble brewing between Corentyne contractors and Water Users Association
What began as an administrative splat between the Regional Authority in New Amsterdam, Region Six, and the local Water Users’ Association in the Upper Corentyne, is threatening to spill over into a major financial and managerial boondoggle.
Recognizing the seriousness of the matter several agencies, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Rice Producers’ Association (RPA), the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and the Region Six Regional Authority, dispatched a high powered team to the area on Wednesday.
Protesters awaiting the Arrival of Officials from Georgetown to resolve problems of their payments
Among those who made the hurried trip were Messrs. Rajkumar Seeraj and Rambridge, Secretary and President respectively of the Rice Producers Association; Lionel Wordsworth, Head of the NDIA; and Dennis Deroop, Region Six Vice Chairman.
Half way to the entrance of the Beach Road at No. 63 Village officials were greeted with placards proclaiming ‘No Money No Work,’ ‘Water Users Unfair’, ‘Payments Long Overdue,’ and ‘Restore Old Contract’.
There were also shouts of “unfairness” and accusations of managerial indigence.
At issue is the promised payment to contractors, some of which has been pending for close to a year. The contractors are responsible for keeping the more than 200 miles of drainage and irrigation canals free of weed, grass and other encumbrances to ensure the free flow of water to the more than 30,000 acres of rice fields.
It is estimated that the 40 contractors are owed an average of $250,000. The contractors complain that they have already expended significant sums to the nearly 300 workers in their employ to get the work done.
These workers, according to the contractors, demand their wages on a weekly basis. In addition, the contractors have to find monies for transportation and other resources to ensure the job is done.
They said that they have already expended considerable sums in the process and need their money back before they continue working.
They insist that they are badly in need of the money owed to them by the Water Users Association.They also argue that when the canals are not cleaned on a regular basis, at least once a month, the grass, weed and other encumbrances pile up and the Water Users’ Association still expects to pay the same sums of money to get double the work done.The Water Users’ Association, for its part, argues that the problem is not payment to the contractors but the humbug of the Regional Administration, which insists on a series of administrative/supervisory procedures.
These, they insist, are not necessary but of course, results in the frustrating delays to the contractors.
In a fit of passion and caught between the intransigence of the region, which has threatened to take over the function from the Water Users’ Association, and the demands of the contractors the Executive and Board of the Water Users resigned en bloc.
Rice farmers and other farmers, in the meantime, have been standing on the sidelines hoping that good sense will prevail. If the canals are not cleaned on time, they suggest, it will affect the water intake for the important second crop which is the larger of the two crops, and a definite threat to the entire community that is almost entirely dependent on rice cultivation.
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