Over the past year government has spent some $357M to strengthen the embankment of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) so as to prevent overtopping and to increase the storage capacity.

This is according to Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud during a visit to the conservancy last Thursday. He said three sets of excavators have been deployed from Flagstaff to Enmore and beyond and 60,000 mud bags have been used to boost the embankment.

There are also plans to acquire a long range excavator, four more sets of pontoons as well as more punts for the job. Persaud said the pontoons are being utilized to mount the excavators while desilting the conservancy which was built 140 years ago. This is part of the maintenance project of the National Drainage and Irrigation Board (NDIA).

He told a group of engineering students from the University of Guyana and the Government Technical Institute who were on a tour of the conservancy that flood control of the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks depends on the completion of phase two of the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary scheme, when the EDWC would no longer be needed.

He noted that the government would soon embark on a conservancy adaptation project with assistance from the World Bank.

The project, the minister said, would include surveys, analysis, and modelling to improve the efficiency of the conservancy. It would also be critical in providing data which would be “upgraded with the technology.”

NDIA official, Ravi Naraine said the conservancy is at a manageable level and it has the capacity to store more water, so they went through the recent rainy season without having to open the sluices. Flooding in the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks was as a result of excessive rainfall, he said.

According to him “during the rainy season everybody wants drainage and this causes the conservancy to become extremely critical,” and the NDIA has to drain directly into the Demerara River.

He also said they have to “keep the water level in the conservancy low to accommodate but not at a level to jeopardize.” But, he said, if the water level gets low during the dry season they would have to pump from the Maduni canal.