As corruption swirls wildly around us, crime spirals out of control, the economy in a freefall, growing more dismal daily and international debt threatening to again overwhelm us, we console ourselves with an occasional trickle of good news, such as the government’s announcement that the Cunha Canal Reconstruction Project is underway. The preparation was in the making since 2011. But the project nearly did not happen. It took a herculean effort to persuade a pessimistic World Bank technical team and we had to overcome APNU/AFC budget cuts in Parliament. I am proud of my own role as Minister of Agriculture in bringing this project from a mere concept to reality. Even as some of my staff at the time insisted it was futile, Lionel Wordsworth and his team helped me to make the technical, economic and social justice case for the Cunha Reconstruction Project.
APNU/AFC should not be embarrassed or hesitant to implement a PPP project that they voted against in 2014. The project is in the interest of the country and the only good news coming out of their administration has been in their implementation of PPP-initiated projects. After the World Bank approved GRIF projects in 2013, the PPP had budgeted for the Cunha Canal as part of the GRIF Programme in 2014. APNU/AFC voted against the GRIF programme as part of cutting the budget by billions of dollars, hoping to inflict harm and to stymie Guyana’s development trajectory.
It was rotten political opportunism as they sought to embarrass the PPP government, with the Guyanese people as collateral damage. But I was convinced that they knew then, as they do now, that the Cunha Canal Reconstruction Project and the entire GRIF Programme was in the interest of the Guyanese people. Having let the people down when they voted against these projects previously, it is no humiliation now for APNU/AFC to do the right thing. It is the sensible thing for APNU/AFC to proceed with this most worthy project.
The Cunha Project is one of the GRIF (Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund) projects under the Conservancy Adaptation Programme (CAP). I had personally made this one of our priorities while I was Minister of Agriculture and, in spite of some early reservations by the World Bank technical team, the PPP Cabinet, President Donald Ramotar and the World Bank agreed that the Cunha Canal Reconstruction was a worthy infrastructure initiative as part of Guyana’s climate change adaptation.
I became involved when my technical team at the Ministry of Agriculture failed to convince the World Bank team that the project was worthy of consideration. Working personally with Lionel Wordsworth, the then head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Agency (NDIA), we made the technical, economic and social justice case for the Cunha Canal Reconstruction and obtained the approval of the GRIF Steering Committee in June 2012. Subsequently we successfully obtained the endorsement of the World Bank technical team that visited Guyana in July and November 2012. It was, therefore, despicable when APNU/AFC in an act of political cowardice, voted against the project in the budget considerations of 2014.
The Cunha Canal Rehabilitation is a part of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), a signature Jagdeo footprint. The project was designed to improve water management in the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) and to enhance the drainage for residents and for farmers on the East Bank of Demerara. The proposed physical works for the Cunha Canal include the widening of the canal, the rehabilitation of the former outlet structure, rerouting the canal to re-establish its original alignment and construction of a bridge on the East Bank of Demerara Public Road where the canal intercepts the road.
This project became an imperative because the former PNC government, the parent body of APNU/AFC, in a reckless act closed the original Cunha Sluice and rerouted the Cunha Canal to accommodate the Barama Logging Company in 1990. In rerouting the Cunha Canal, the original alignment was changed to link Cunha with the Sarah Johanna Channel. This overloaded the Sarah Johanna Channel and flooding became more frequent and more intense. Areas such as Kuru Kururu, Coverden, Pearl and Sarah Johanna with about 1,000 hectares of farmlands became agriculture wasteland and the effective drainage of the EDWC also became a nightmare, increasing flood threats for Mahaica and Mahaicony.
The project was designed to correct the recklessness of a previous disastrous decision of the old PNC government. It will improve the livelihoods of thousands of families on the East Bank Demerara and, together with the new Hope Canal, significantly reduce threats of flooding in the Mahaica/Mahaicony areas. While it is true that the project has the footprints of the PPP Government and Bharat Jagdeo, the only thing relevant is that the project is in the interest of the people of Guyana. It is the right thing to do.
Dr Leslie Ramsammy
