After 5 days of flooding, non-working pump at Adventure replaced

…cash crop farmers counting losses

By Andrew Carmichael

Five days after the cultivation area and some sections of the homesteads at Lesbeholden, Black Bush Polder, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) had been under flood waters, authorities have finally installed a pump to replace the non-functional equipment.
Installed at Adventure, the pump would assist with the drainage of the entire community of Lesbeholden in Black Bush Polder. However, the drainage process is still slow, as both rice and cash crops are being affected.
Notwithstanding this development, residents and farmers have said the intervention may be too late, as they are already suffering losses.
Heavy rainfall over the Independence weekend and into the new week had left sections of this farming community inundated. Cash crop farmers have said they had experienced more rainfall in a shorter period of time and it did not impact their crops this severely.

The outfall channel from Adventure to the Atlantic Ocean has been blocked for several months. Authorities had been waiting on the rainfall to commence the desilting exercise, but when it started to rain, there was still not enough water in the system to flush the outfall channel. However, the Independence weekend rainfall left more water in the system than it could have handled.
Siltation levels in the outfall channel had made it impossible for water to be drained by force of gravity, and the situation had been
compounded by the pump at Adventure being out of operation. A mobile pump was only installed on Saturday, by which time many of the farmers had already been counting their losses.
Sections of the residential area had also been inundated, with Khemraj Deonarine of Lesbeholden South saying that water had been in the lower part of his home for two days.
“It had about four inches of water, but Kevin [his nieghbour] bring a pump and pump out the water; he is a good neighbour,” the elderly man, who lives alone with his wife, told this publication.

Others have not been that fortunate, and rice farmers have been contending that they have been the ones most affected. Many of them have recently sowed paddy for the autumn crop, and they say the young rice plants cannot survive in the high levels of water that currently exist, thus they are dying.
Rice farmers told this publication that they have been pumping out water from their fields, but as they do this, more water is entering the fields. They say that because the outfall channel is blocked, the water remains in the community and just goes around in circles.
However, with the mobile pump put into use on Saturday, water levels are dropping, although very slowly. This, cash crop farmers say, is likely to worsen an already bad situation.
One cash crop, farmer Harrynarine Bridgelall, has said he cultivates one acre of land with leafy vegetables and peppers. “They all duck!” he said in referring to the level of water in his farm.
This farmer has said his pepper trees are bearing, but cannot withstand the prolonged period of immersion in water. He said his entire crop has been destroyed, and this means big losses, because the current price for peppers is very encouraging.
Jairam Ramlakan, another cash crop farmer, who contends that he has had to walk through two feet of water to get into his farm, has described the situation as being very bad.
“I get bora and pepper (under cultivation), and the water raise very high and duck them. I lost about 500 root of bora and 400 root pepper,” he said.
He said it had been four days since his crop has been under water. “The rain fall and the water raise. It is the drainage, man; the drainage they ain’t get right,” he added in explaining that the drainage system needs to be addressed.
The canal which drains the community takes the water to Adventure, and desilting of the outfall channel at Adventure is ongoing.
Lesbeholden is one of four polders that comprise the community of Black Bush Polder. The polders of Mibicuri, Johanna and Yakasari are also experiencing water levels which are negatively impacting crops.