Flood-prone Corentyne villages to benefit from $77M drainage works

Nov 18, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Residents of Corentyne, East Berbice – Corentyne will benefit from the rehabilitation of drainage and dams in residential and cultivation areas.

Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha on Wednesday announced $77M has been allocated to undertake the rehabilitation works during a meeting with residents of Bloomfield Village, Corentyne.

Attendees at Wednesday’s meeting

The communities to benefit are: Alness, Whim, Auchlyne, Letterkenny and Bloomfield. Mustapha disclosed that $42M will be spent on the cleaning of canals within the residential areas of the identified communities while $35M will be used to clean canals and fix dams in the cultivation areas. The aim of the exercise is to prevent floods in the areas.

Further, the Minister said that a pump will be stationed at Whim to assist in the drainage of water. It is expected that the pump will be installed before year-end, a task assigned to the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).”For this area, Whim/Bloomfield, we know for a fact that when you look at these areas, the most flood prone areas is Whim, so over the years, we have seen what has happened here at Whim…,” Minister Mustapha said.

The Agriculture Minister said that in the communities of Whim, Auchlyne, Letter Kenny and Bloomfield the majority of the internal drains are clogged. As a result, a ministerial decision was taken to de-silt all the canals and internal drains.

Associated Construction Company is scheduled to begin works today.

Mustapha assured that the contractor, Peter Lewis, will leave the soil along the dams. Bridges that are blocking the drains will be removed during the process, he told the residents while urging them to form a small committee and work along with the local NDC to monitor the project.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha (standing) speaks during a meeting with residents of Bloomfield, Corentyne.

“I am hoping before we have the heavy rainfall we can conclude this project and that goes for Whim, Auchlyne, Letter Kenny and Bloomfield,” he said.

In the cultivation areas between Alness and Bloomfield, a number of canals have already been cleaned to assist farmers although more work needs to be done. Additionally, works will continue in Kokrit Savannah in Black Bush Polder, where farmers lost many cattle during the heavy floods, and other areas.

Meanwhile, Minister Mustapha announced that a $600M state of the art abattoir is earmarked for construction in Region 5. He said that his ministry is working to develop small ruminants and will also be cross breeding Black Belly Sheep with local sheep in an effort to have quality livestock.

Government had announced that some $177.7M has been allocated to provide support the Black Belly Sheep Project.

As of Thursday, 341 Black Belly Sheep were imported from Barbados for the project. The Government is currently in talks with a Brazilian company to have embryo transplant done to facilitate a “better breed of animals.”

“We are now matching investors with local farmers…we are consolidating rice, sugar, fresh fruits and vegetables and that is why we are developing the livestock sector…we also cannot continue to import feed, we have to produce our own feed”, Mustapha said.

Minister of Natural Resource, Vickram Bharrat; Vice Chairman Region Six, Zamal Hussain; Chief Executive Officer at NDIA, Lionel Wordsworth and Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Madanlall Ramraj also attended the meeting.

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