The construction of an irrigation pump station and installation of fixed pumps at Mora Point, Mahaicony River in Region Five is moving closer to realization with the design phase expected to complete by the middle of this month.
National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Engineer for Mahaica/Berbice, Dharamkumar Seeraj disclosed that Innovative Engineering Consultants was awarded $16.7Million contract for the design and supervision in April last.
The pump at Mora Point will be one of nine new drainage and irrigation pumps which are being acquired by the Government as part of a $837.4Million (US $4Million) Government of India line of credit.
Once completed, the Mora Point pump will deliver water from the Mahaicony River into irrigation channels for large rice producing areas within the Mahaicony Abary Rice Development Scheme (MARDS) at a rate of 80 cubic feet per second (cusecs).
According to the Engineer, “2500 acres of rice cultivation will benefit from guaranteed irrigation when badly needed such as in El Nino weather conditions.” Seeraj said NDIA’s acceptance of the design by the consultants will be followed by the award of contracts for the pump station and the installation of the pumps during 2019.
The new Pump Station at Mora Point will replace the old pump station and the two old pumps previously installed by a colonial government over 100 years ago.
Seeraj said that the century-old pumps, one of which was said to be still working, will be “spruced up” and kept at their current location as historical artefacts’ also their accommodation could become a drainage and irrigation (D&I) heritage site. (Department of Public Information).
