Very little interest paid to current situation – Regional Chairman

Sea defence breach

As the second breach to the sea defence has occurred at Dantzig, Mahaica, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), putting thousands of acres on rice land under threat, over the past week both cultivated lands and land used for pastures have been flooded with water from the ocean.

Regional Chairman Vickchand Ramphal told this publication that some efforts are being made to address the situation.
“I see that a contractor has been mobilised to carry out on the dam and to prevent the inflow of water. However, that is not enough. The entire project needs to be approached in a holistic way to bring a final solution to the erosion problem that exists within the Mahaica-Mahaicony block of the Region,” Ramphal emphasised.
Over the past eight months, many farmers would have lost business as a result of being unable to cultivate their lands due to it being flooded with saltwater from the ocean.
“And on to today they have not received any assistance from the Government to put them back on their feet. And so, it is of my belief that because of the current political situation our farmers continue to suffer and this project continues to be placed on the back burner.”
The Chairman said at this time there is a need for the legitimate Government to be in place which is capable and has the capacity to deal with such a big project of repairing the sea defence.
“A Government that has the knowledge and the interest of the people at heart so as to bring relief to them and for them to continue with their livelihood,” Ramphal said, further noting that erosion of the sea defence started several months ago.
However, the most recent breach occurred about two weeks ago and that has caused flooding to the western half of Dantzig.

“I understand also that there are two other breaches along this stretch going to the Mahaica River. Let me make it very clear that previously under the People’s Progressive Party Government, there was proper supervision of this entire coastal area, but what we have seen is that very little interest was paid [to the] current situation and there was no proper monitoring,” he added.
The main breach in the Dantzig area has not been sealed as yet. In fact, according to Ramphal, it has gotten worse and the works that were done by the contractors have not made much of a difference to stop the ocean water from entering the farmlands.
In fact, for some time now, there has been overtopping of the mud dam which was created, allowing for further intrusion of saltwater. “The erosion started quite a while ago but because of the lackadaisical approach by the coalition Government, we have seen the devastation in this entire District.” The Chairman said a sustainable project which would see proper attention given to farmers is needed. If this is not done, they will once again suffer losses. According to Ramphal, details of the project which is being executed by the Public Infrastructure Ministry have not been made available to the Regional Administration. Hence, he could not say how much money has since been spent.