Region Six is the site of one of Guyana’s largest drainage and irrigation projects, featuring massive Hope-like canals and a 47-kilometre embankment designed to reduce flooding and secure water for cultivation.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, told rice farmers at Skeldon Estate on Wednesday that the government’s priority is long-term water security for agriculture, particularly rice and cash crops.
“We have said that we will build three new Hope-like canal structures. And you know that we have already awarded the contracts for the canal, the Hope-like canal structures in Region Six, which will have two major outfalls into the Atlantic, a major embankment along the Canje River, and an internal network of drainage,” Dr Singh said.
The project, modelled on the Hope Canal in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), is aimed at both reducing flooding and ensuring reliable water access for farmers in Black Bush Polder and across the Corentyne.
National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Chairman Lionel Wordsworth described the works as a project of national importance.
“We have built a 47- kilometer long embankment that’s from Vrede-en-Vriendschap coming all the way to Number 66. What that will do is that when the Canje River gets high and this has happened in the past, it will keep the flood waters out. And then we have the hope-like canals connecting at Lancaster from the embankment going to the Atlantic and Number 51, 52 going to the Atlantic,” Wordsworth said.
He reported that the embankment is complete, while other components are progressing.
“So the embankment is 100 per cent completed. We have 24 internal canals which are about 85 per cent completed. The Lancaster Canal going out is about 35 per cent and the 51/52 is about 35 per cent. So all work is ongoing. The two sluices- contracts have been awarded and the contractors are sourcing materials for those. The project timeline for all of this is eight months to complete based on the contracts to finish all of it,” he said.
Farmers in Region Six have long faced seasonal flooding that wiped out crops and livelihoods. The government says the new canals and embankment will protect thousands of acres of farmland and safeguard farming families across the Corentyne.
