Agriculture Ministry hands over mini-excavators to 4 ECD NDCs

– equipment to maintain community drainage network – Min Mustapha

As part of Government’s efforts to empower local government authorities across the country, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has handed over four mini-excavators to four Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) on the East Coast of Demerara (Region Four).
In an Agriculture Ministry press release, it was noted that the machines, each valued at approximately $14 million, would be used to effect drainage works in the residential communities within their respective catchment areas.
Minister Mustapha, while addressing residents and farmers at the handing-over ceremony, which was held at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Complex at La Bonne Intention on Saturday, said each of the seventeen NDCs in Region Four would soon have access to an excavator, thanks to the Government of Guyana. This represents a total investment of approximately $238 million, he detailed.
He told residents that as part of Government’s vision to develop a countrywide comprehensive drainage system, the Ministry of Agriculture, through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), has a critical role to play in terms of providing drainage and irrigation in both cultivation and residential communities.

“We are developing a comprehensive drainage system that can withstand one of the problems we are currently facing in this part of the world: climate change. Over the last few years, Guyana, like many other countries in the region, has been experiencing unseasonal weather patterns. The existing drainage system in our country was designed to drain approximately one-and-a-half inches of water in twenty-four hours. If funds are not allocated to improve the existing system, we will continuously encounter serious difficulties. If we want to fully restore our status as ‘the breadbasket of the Caribbean’, we have to invest and develop a comprehensive drainage system,” he explained.

Prior to Saturday’s activity, Minister Mustapha had said that H.E. President Dr Irfaan Ali and Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo had instructed that resources be allocated to local government authorities to enable them to maintain the drainage systems within their communities.
Minister Mustapha had also said Government is actively working to develop the drainage system needed to effectively drain vulnerable areas in this country on a timely basis.
“Following the 2005 floods, the PPP/C government started to develop the system that is needed to effectively drain vulnerable areas in this country in a timely manner. That’s why we constructed the high-level canal at Hope, which we refer to as the Hope Canal. When we built that canal, a lot of persons, specifically the Opposition, had a lot of negative things to say. We lived to see that very same structure playing a very critical role in 2021, when Guyana experienced another major flood — the most devastating flood in our country’s history. Every other part of the country was severely affected, except for the East Coast of Demerara and Georgetown. We are now constructing similar structures in Regions Six, Five, and Two. These are mega projects that require large-scale investments. An investment in this sector is an investment in this country’s infrastructure,” he noted.

He also said while the machines are being handed over to the NDCs, they would be managed and maintained by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), as the NDCs may not have the capacity to finance upkeep of these machines.
The NDCs that benefited from today’s handing over were: Cane Grove; Unity/Vereeniging; Mon Repos/La Reconnaissance; and Beterverwagting/Triumph.
Each NDC would now have to develop a work plan to guide the maintenance of internal drainage systems in their communities, while the NDIA would focus on maintaining main canals and other major drainage and irrigation infrastructure.
Minister Mustapha has said that, before the end of the year, each local government authority in Guyana would have a mini-excavator to execute works to upgrade internal drainage systems in the communities.