Latest update January 15th, 2025 3:34 AM
Amaila Falls hydro construction to start this year – Ramotar
– says LCDS on course
Construction of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project will commence later this year, President Ramotar said yesterday, as he trumpeted the success of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
President Donald Ramotar and Dr. Racquel Thomas in conversation at State House yesterday.
The LCDS was launched in 2009 by former President Bharrat Jagdeo. He was backed by a US$250 million pact with Norway.
Some of the funding from that forest-saving initiative will go towards funding the hydro project and other initiatives.
Ramotar said that funding for the project is soon to be finalized.
He was speaking at a special ceremony at his State House residence where he gave an update on the LCDS.
He said that with the start of electricity generation from Amaila Falls in 2017, Guyana will likely be the world’s leading user of clean energy. From the project, he said, Guyanese homes and businesses will get cheaper, more reliable electricity supply.
From the LCDS more than 11,000 Amerindian homes now have electricity for the first time —through solar systems.
In addition, Ramotar said that low carbon industries identified in the LCDS are growing fast — ecotourism in the Rupununi is growing by 20 per cent a year, and the business process outsourcing sector has more than doubled employment in four years.
Further, he said Guyana is on track to become the world’s most inclusive digital society, as 90,000 vulnerable households gain access to computers and training — almost 27,000 have been distributed to date.
He said that the government has started to provide targeted assistance for small businesses and vulnerable communities to stimulate the creation of 2,200 new low carbon jobs in the next three years.
Regarding titling of Amerindian communities, Ramotar said the Government has committed to completing the land titling process over the next three years, for all communities that request this to be done.
A total of 166 Amerindian villages, communities and settlements have produced low carbon community development plans, and this year, commencement of 27 of those will be implemented —creating new low carbon opportunities in areas such as ecotourism, sustainable agriculture and manufacturing.
“It speaks of how the Government intends to pursue a once-in-a-generation investment in our Adaptation infrastructure, of how we will intensify our efforts to support private sector led growth in high potential low carbon sectors, and of how we will continue to deliver large scale support for Amerindian-led socio-economic development,” Ramotar stated.
In the LCDS Foreword, the President alluded to the need to stay firm when progress was difficult, saying that reforms with this scale of ambition are never without set-backs: “We are building the first model of its kind in the world… We know that ambitious reform is difficult… When faced by set-backs, the wrong reaction is to be frightened or overwhelmed by them. The right reaction is to persevere, because Guyana’s people benefit in the end.”
In 2008, when he set out his vision of a new economy to achieve these goals, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that Guyana would aim to meet three inter-linked challenges: how to make forests worth more alive than dead; how to stimulate future growth using clean energy and non-deforesting economic activities; how to protect against climate change.
Private Sector Chairman, Ronald Webster and the National Toshaos Council expressed support for the LCDS.
“We are now well on the way towards transitioning our economy to one that is built on clean energy; sustainable land use; and maintaining our forests,” Ramotar stated.
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