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$3.6B Hope/Dochfour project…Northern Relief channel to be completed in 2016 – Holder
Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, has laid out the plans for the National Drainage and Irrigation Agency (NDIA), come 2016. Among some of the works that have been identified for completion is the Northern relief channel at Hope/Dochfour.
Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder
This was communicated during the Ministry of Agriculture’s year-end press conference and the news will come after years of the project being behind completion schedules. The $3.6B dollar project began in 2010, under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration.
At the time, a two-year completion date had been on the cards but delays left the project behind schedule by three years, with minor works being completed.
The project was conceptualized to be an alternative route to discharge excess water from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC), rather than using the Lama and Maduni sluices.
. In 2005, due to a breach in the EDWC, flood waters wreaked havoc to farmlands along the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). It is estimated that almost 30,000 hectares of farmlands lie along the EDWC.
In June of 2015, there was periodic testing of the Northern Relief Channel outfall. At the time it was conducted, the objective had been to drain the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) of excess water.
During the trial, which was graded as successful, the head regulator (southern sluice), strength of the canal and holding dam and the efficiency of the automatic high level doors at the northern sluice were tested. The Channel has since been operating on a periodic basis.
Other projects
Meanwhile, Holder also projected that the rehabilitation works on several relief sluices will be completed. The sluices he cited were at Maduni and Sarah Johana (Cunha).
The eight-door sluice section at Hope/Dochfour
He also spoke of the construction of drainage structures at Upper Pomeroon, Charity, Paradise, Naamryck, Beribissibali and West Watooka.
The Minister also projected the revetment of drainage and irrigation structures at Leguan, Wakenaam, Hogg Island, East Bank Essequibo, Buxton/Friendship and West Berbice. Holder also announced that come 2016, a feasibility study and preliminary designs for water conservancy facilities in the Rupununi Savannahs will be conducted. There are also plans for the rehabilitation of hydraulic excavators, pontoons and pumps.
There are also plans on board for excavating outfall channels and to purchase high density polyethylene tubes (HDPE).
The agency will not only be rehabilitating pontoons and excavators, as there are plans on stream to procure pontoons, excavators and steel sheet piles.
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