House clears $740M for drainage works

Dec 06, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The National Assembly on Monday approved some $740 million for the Ministry of Agriculture for a number of drainage works across several regions in the country.

The $740 million would cover works such as the rehabilitation of drainage channels, access brides and revetments in various regions. Giving a breakdown of where the money will be spent, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha said that out of the $740 million, in Region Three $260 million will be expended, in Region Four $115 million will be spent, in Region Five $153 million will be expended, in Region Six $121 million will be spent, and in Region Seven $89 million will be expended.

The minister noted on Monday that these works in the various regions are important. “Mr. Speaker, these works are very important because you know for a fact that we have seen an influx of persons entering the agriculture sector…people who would have called it a day in 2015 and 2020, we are seeing more and more people coming in back and want to get into agriculture. We are seeing our agriculture sector thriving as a matter of fact almost every single month, we are seeing containers of produce going to the eastern Caribbean where farmers in Guyana now are exporting their produce,” he said.

Mustapha said too that it is also important to have the drainage infrastructure rehabilitated because maintenance of these has been long overdue. He said a number of sluice doors have to be repaired because they have become vulnerable. “So a number of these doors have become vulnerable because the repairs were not done during the time that they were supposed to be repaired so we are doing all those works and now we are having more people coming into the agriculture sector,” he explained.

Kaieteur News had reported back in October that the Ministry had issued several invitations for bids for contractors to undertake drainage works across the country. Some of the tenders were for drainage works at Bonasika, Essequibo River, Region Three which was estimated to cost the country some $104M. Similarly, bids were issued for works in Bartica, Region Seven which was estimated at $90M and in Mahaicony, Region Five which was estimated at $68 million.

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