Hope-like canal at Lancaster to encroach on transported farmlands

– acres of land already cleared without notification of farmers, Govt to intervene

One of three ‘Hope-like’ canals being built by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) at Lancaster village in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) has only recently been discovered to be encroaching on transported farmlands owned by farmers.
After the contractor had on Tuesday cleared several acres of farmland, including those with bearing fruit trees and several rice fields, the discovery of this encroachment was made; much to the surprise of the farmers, who had not been informed beforehand of any work scheduled to be done in the area.
“I had a couple beds farmland on this area! I ent seeing no mango trees, no coconut trees! I came here because I understand what is going on! I can’t even make out my part of the land with how the lands clear away now! I have to go and get surveyors and measure back my land…They can’t start a project and the people in the place ent know, and then come and destroy people farmland! I want them to put back my mango trees right where they were!” Nigel Mongo, a farmer, has said.
Samuel Fraser, another farmer, who cultivates rice and cash crops, explained that his parents had been cultivating the land when he was a child, and as he became old enough, he took over cultivation of the land, and has been making a living off of the land.

“My parents used to pay all of the rates and taxes for this land that I planting on! I now come to plow the rice field to plant rice, and I see the excavator inside heaping up the whole rice field! I go and talk to them and tell them this in my rice field and they can’t grade up this rice field so! They tell me that some contract passed to build a canal,” an enraged Fraser detailed.
More than 700 acres of land in this community are under rice cultivation, and some farmers are about to plough for the next crop, which is about to commence.

Moreover, some farmers have said that, as recent as last weekend, they had harvested limes and other fruits, and had sold them at the market on Saturday. But when they returned on Tuesday to reap more of their produce, they found that their trees had were uprooted by a fleet of excavators which are undertaking the canal project.
According to Winston Hunt who cultivates 100 acres of rice, at a community meeting facilitated by the Agriculture Ministry in August, farmers were informed of the project and were told that an existing canal would have been utilized.
“But today, now, it is something far different from what the Minister and the engineer Lionel had said. It is about eight excavators come, and they clean up a set of rice land in the cultivation area…farmland that get cocorite trees and mango trees they also clear off that! We had no knowledge that they wanted to use this farmland to make a canal,” Hunt declared.
Sharon Smith, Chairperson of the Hogstye/Lancaster Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), has said that after being informed of the development on Tuesday, she ventured into the cultivation area. Adding that she also had not been informed of the project, she said she initially tried to garner information on what was going on.
“I called Mr Armogan, the Chairman for Region Six. We spoke briefly, and he told me that he is not aware (of what is going on). Then I tried reaching out to the contractor who is undertaking the project, and he told me that the Regional Administration is aware of what is happening currently in Liverpool, and it is the Hope-like canal (that is being built),” Smith disclosed.
In a comment invited by this publication, Region Six Chairman David Armogan has said the regional administration is not the entity undertaking the project. While the regional administration is aware of plans to construct the canal, it is the NDIA that has full control over the project.
The farmers have since asked the contractor to put this exercise on hold, and have pointed out that the work is encroaching on transported land. NDIA Chairman Lionel Wordsworth has meanwhile told Guyana Times that surveying is still ongoing, and he has confirmed that the excavators were sent to the area by the NDIA.
He has said the Agriculture Ministry would be meeting with landowners to iron out contentious issues, but he could not say when that engagement would take place. (Andrew Carmicheal)