Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:25 AM
Mar 03, 2018 News
The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) believes that it can play a role to cushion the effects that layoffs in the sugar industry will have on Region 6 (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Senior engineer at the NDIA, Dave Hicks, speaking at a panel discussion hosted at the Moray House on Tuesday, to discuss the effects of the layoffs on the community, said that former sugar workers could be integrated in the NDIA drainage and irrigation plans for the region.
Hicks noted that every year, NDIA spends some $91M on the manual cleaning of drains, but 50% are maintained by farmers themselves.
According to Hicks, the NDIA subsidizes the cost for the maintenance of the channel, but after careful consideration, it was found that while farmers themselves benefited from the subsidized cleaning, they are also benefiting from the contracts to execute the cleaning.
Government, through the state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), has taken a decision to layoff over 4000 sugar workers in the Region 6 area through the closure of the Skeldon and Rosehall estates.
“We are actively looking at this right now to see if we can redirect those sums of money for cleaning towards persons who are unemployed or persons who came off from the GuySuCo area,” Hicks stated.
He noted that to achieve this plan, there is the need for some prodding to ensure that the sugar workers are involved in the drainage works, since the Water Users Association is self-managed by a board who are responsible for the authorization of the works.
Hicks noted that apart from the NDIA, the upkeep of the drainage structures is the shared responsibility of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), the NDIA, Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and the municipalities.
The NDIA is proposing that one agency be responsible for the drainage and irrigation in region 6 and throughout the entire country.
“Primary channels, declared or undeclared areas…we have the technical skills and financial resources that will make the system more dependable and reliable,” Hicks outlined.
He encouraged the former sugar workers to form themselves into groups to benefit from the NDIA’s maintenance work.
The NDIA has an aggressive plan to increase the discharge capacity of drainage catchments. Currently, most catchments cater for 1.5 inches of rain in 24 hours, but NDIA plans to increase that amount to 3.5 inches in 24 hours with every new infrastructure and rehabilitated structure.
NDIA sees that there are employment opportunities from such endeavours.
As part of its additional work plan, Hicks explained that the NDIA has assumed responsibilities for drainage in areas previously under the control of GuySuCo.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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