Government will soon begin the construction of three eight-door outfall canals to mitigate flooding in Regions Three, Five, and Six.
This was announced Wednesday by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha.
“Our Ministry through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) has been tasked with the responsibility of looking for suitable locations. We already have these locations and these will be massive projects”, he told DPI during an interview.
He said while the country faced unprecedented rainfall over the last few months, Georgetown and the East Coast of Demerara, were not as severely affected as other parts of the country.
“That came about because of the construction of the Hope Canal, and I am hoping that these outlets, for example Black Bush Polder, areas around Black Bush Polder are very vulnerable to flooding… So, these are areas that I think these structures, this infrastructure will do a lot of wonders for, a lot of drainage happens there.”
When the canals are completed, Minister Mustapha said the lands will be drained efficiently, preserving the agriculture sector.
“I’m very happy that the President has already made a decision that [we] will embark on these projects very shortly. So, this will help us to mitigate flooding across the country. And we will not experience that kind of heavy flooding that we had over the last two months when we had the flooding in Guyana”, the Minister said.
These projects represent the Government’s long-term solution to flooding in the country. In the meantime, the Administration has commenced the distribution of flood relief grants to affected farmers. (Extracted and modified from the Department of Public Information)
