US$123M needed to develop East Dem. Conservancy – Agri. Minister

Mar 08, 2014 News

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–    Govt. eyes int’l donor partners

By Keeran Danny
Significant development of the East Demerara Water Conservancy would cost an estimated US$123M (G$26B), an amount Government does not have to invest. As such, it is seeking support from international developmental partners to help finance these critical works.
This assertion was made by Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, at the workshop/ presentation of the
Managing Flood Risk in Guyana Report to local stakeholders and international donor partners including the World Bank and the European Union.
At the event held at Regency Suites, Hadfield Street, Dr. Ramsammy emphasized the correlation between infrastructural development and Guyana’s ambitions of becoming a higher middle income country. The country’s susceptibility to flooding and the severity of the effects were felt in January 2005, when 60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product was affected and the coastland was inundated with floodwaters for about three weeks.
To effectively manage the country’s flood risk a study – The Conservancy Adaptation Project (CAP) – was done by Mott MacDonald. The findings have enabled the Ministry of Agriculture to determine the critical and priority works that need to be executed on the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC).
“The studies done…on the East Demerara Water Conservancy have now become popularly known as the CAP: CAP One and CAP Two. Part of what we are going to be dealing with today (yesterday) is how the studies of CAP One are going to emerge as package of projects that constitutes CAP Two. There will be things that we will not cater for in the US$123M that we have estimated as the cost of all the things we need to do, because of the CAP studies,” Dr. Ramsammy stated.
According to the Minister, execution of works on the EDWC, which is estimated to cost approximately $26B, is a huge undertaking for a country like Guyana and its partners. Guyana is unaware where financing for the projects will be derived from. However, it is confident that collaboration between Government and development partners will see the realization of these projects in phases.
“The approach we have taken today (yesterday) to bring our partners together as we present this report is the recognition that we have to work from one development programme and we have to work with a programme from everyone, not duplicating, and having orderly progression of that development plan,” he asserted.
The Minister emphasized that the Ministry has already articulated a World Bank-led CAP II project valued approximately US$11M. This project would see the reestablishing of discharge into the Atlantic Ocean.
Dr. Ramsammy recalled that a few weeks ago he reminded persons that the EDWC had discharge points both at the eastern section into the Mahaica area and the western portion into the Demerara River and then into the Atlantic Ocean.
“Somewhere along the line we made a critical mistake. We downgraded one of the western discharges, Cunha Canal, and I am now hopeful that Cunha Canal would be upgraded back to a meaningful discharge into the Demerara River. That is the project we are working through the World Bank as one of the GRIF projects.”
The Minister is hoping that before June, the Ministry would see the high level sluice at Hope operation allowing discharge. This would be the first stage in restoring discharges into the Atlantic Ocean.
As part of drainage upgrades will be the pumping capacity along the East Coast Demerara – a pump station will be erected at Ogle/Plaisance and another is currently being erected at Enterprise.
According to the Minister, the CAP projects are just a fraction of what is needed for the overall development of the agriculture sector and the country as a whole.
Not far away from the CAP II project site, Government needs to complete the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary Agricultural Programme. He noted that talks about this programme began in the 1950s, studies were conducted in the 1960s and the actual programme began in the 1980s. But, it was left incomplete.
Dr. Ramsammy noted that phase one saw the establishment of the Abary Conservancy, which was left incomplete over the last 20 years or so. However, extensive works were done on the Abary Conservancy that have assisted in reducing floods and provided irrigation during dry periods.
Phase two had envisaged the establishment of a similar conservancy in the Mahaicony block that goes from the Abary River to the Mahaicony River. That was a huge project and had it been done then when it was supposed to have been done, the cost incurred would have been a fraction of the current cost, Dr. Ramsammy said.

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