Leguan received $645M sea defence boost in last 5 years

Jan 27, 2020 News

The beautiful Island of Leguan, lies among the majestic Essequibo Islands but its beauty is often threatened by rising sea levels and rapid tides.
Recognising this, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has injected over $645M into boosting its sea and river defences.

A section of the sea defence work carried out in Leguan.

Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Jaipaul Sharma told Kaieteur News that upon taking up office in 2015, the Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson had engineers carry out an assessment of all of the vulnerable sea defence areas along the coastlands, and also at Leguan.
Sharma explained that “recognising the importance of the Island to the residents and also to the economic development of our country, we decided to carry out a series of rehabilitation and developmental works including a large number of river and sea defence projects.”
In 2015, the Ministry expended $179,430,900 on the Construction of rip-rap river defences at La Bagatelle; Construction of rip-rap river defence at Maryville, along with the upgrade of river defence structures at Henrietta.
These contracts were awarded to BK International Inc, A&S General Contracting Inc and Khan’s Construction and Transportation Services Inc; to a tune of $76,289,000, $87,420,000 and $15,721,900 respectively.
Meanwhile, in 2016, $110,696,021.89 was expended on the Construction of rip-rap river defence at Endeavour, Construction of rip-rap river defence at Cane Garden, Construction of timber revetment at Henrietta; maintenance works to river defence at Blenheim; maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Richmond Hill and Cane Garden; maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Henrietta – Vrouwanna, maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Amsterdam and Cane Field; maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Thierens and Success and upgrading of river defences at Thierens.
These works were carried out by Samaroo Investment, A&S General Contracting Inc, Khan’s Enterprise; S. Maraj Construction; Eron Lall Construction; R. Maraj General Contracting and Adamantium Holdings to the tunes of $56,711.89; $49,679,210; $25,340,000; $6,975,200; $2,986,500; $2,720,000; $3,455,900; $1,500,000 and $17,982,500.
In 2017, $141,198, 520 was used for maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Vrouwanna – Phoenix, Maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Cane Garden and Cornelia; upgrading to river defence at Cane Garden, boulder face works along concrete structure at Amsterdam, construction of rip-rap River Defence at Elizabeth Ann, construction of a concrete crest wall at Elizabeth Ann and the upgrading to river defences at Enterprise.
These contracts were awarded to Khan’s Enterprise, Gupta Engineering, S. Maraj Contracting, BK International Inc, and R. Maraj General Contracting. These projects cost $3,900,000; $3,590,000; $56,920,100; $10,879,000; $62,788,520; $3,120,900 and $10,912,500 individually.
A further $133,270,250 was spent in 2018 on the maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Kingston and Richmond Hill; maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Henrietta and Enterprise, construction of timber revetment at Henrietta; maintenance works to river defence at Amsterdam; maintenance works to river defence at La Bagatelle; construction of rip rap river defence at Cane Field; maintenance works to river defence at Elizabeth Ann; emergency works at Cane Garden and maintenance works to river defences at Blenheim.
These projects were undertaken by Khan’s Enterprise, R. Maraj General Contracting, S. Maraj Contracting, BK International and Mohammed Fawaaz Bacchus. These projects cost $3,975,300; $3,200,000; $29,451,700; $10,912,450; $8,974,000; $56,721,590; $6,987,210; $2,450,000 and $10,598,000 respectively.
Meanwhile, 2019 saw a total of M$190,933,200 on the construction of rip-rap sea defence at Cane Garden, construction of rip-rap river defence at Cane Field, gabion mattress river defence at Cornelia, gabion mattress works at Blenheim, Leguan – PH 2; boulder face protection along concrete structures at Amsterdam; maintenance works to the earthen embankment between Henrietta and Vrouwanna and maintenance works to the river defence at Elizabeth Ann.
A. Nazier and Sons Construction, A&S General Contracting INC, IB Contracting and Machinery Rental, Khan’s Construction and Transportation Services INC and Ideal Engineering Services were the awardees of these contracts. M $43,752,400, M $103,257,000, M $9,424,400, M $10,922,400, M $11,775,000, M $2,430,000 and M $9,372,000 were the sums allocated for each project.
The Ministry also undertook work in other areas of development within the Island.