Latest update March 29th, 2025 5:38 AM
Cotton Tree farmers lose millions from floods
Cotton Tree, West Bank Berbice farmers are claiming losses into the millions of dollars owing to neglect from the authorities in draining their farmlands of excess water.
More than a dozen farmers, on Wednesday, travelled to the city to air their concerns at the head office of the Alliance for Change. The party’s chairman, Nigel Hughes, had earlier in the weekend travelled to the community to see the losses first hand.
Farmers claimed that they tried to get both the Region Five administration and the MMA Agricultural Development Association to pump water out of the land, but they were told that no pump was available.
Sahiboodeen Khan said that in the first place, the pump station at Cotton Tree was “locked off” due to repair works which they later found out about.
AFC Chairman Nigel Hughes and Cotton Tree farmers in Georgetown, Wednesday.
He said that when farmers asked for a pump there was none available. He said that it was only recently that the pump station was re-opened to let the water out.
But by then, he said, all of his crops were already destroyed.
“This is not politics…This is about my livelihood, my daily bread,” Khan told reporters at a press conference hosted by the AFC yesterday.
Another farmer, Gowkarran Seenarine, said that he has been farming crops such as watermelons and squash for the past six years. He said that at least two times a year his farmland is flooded due to mismanagement by the authorities and no compensation is ever forthcoming.
Young farmer, Krishna Rampersaud, who plants bora, sweet peppers and others crops with his father, was among those who travelled to Georgetown and had the same story to tell.
AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan said that it was a “lie” for the government to claim that the farmers were not compensated because of the budget cuts.
He said that no such monies came for approval in the House. Ramjattan said that he didn’t think any party in the National Assembly would have a problem with compensation for farmers.
Since the visit of the AFC Chairman to the village, farmers claim that activists of the ruling PPP started to swarm the area “like bees” questioning them why they took the AFC to the area and telling them not to attend the press conference.
“They don’t help me. First thing we go to the region, they don’t have a pump,” Khan stated.
He said that activists of the ruling party have promised that they will “look after them” but the farmers say that they don’t have faith in such promises after years of flooding.
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