Rice farmers at Number 43 Village, Corentyne are complaining that their crops have been under threat from flooding after a tube attached to the main drainage canal was blocked to benefit residents at Yakusari.

The disgruntled farmers told this newspaper yesterday that officials from the Region Six department instructed that the tube be blocked so as to “save the farmers in Black Bush Polder (BBP) but they flood out we rice fields.”

Attempts to drain the water with six pumps were unsuccessful as the water has nowhere to go because the level of the canal is very high. The water is rising on the dam and flows into the 300-acre fields that 10 farmers are cultivating, one related.

At a meeting in BBP with the farmers on Wednesday, Regional Chairman, Zulfikar Mustapha “negotiated” with the Number 43 Village farmers to release the water for 12 hours but they are still not satisfied.

“We want the water to drain constantly so it can come off the fields because after the 12 hours the situation would be the same,” a farmer, Hemraj Babulall said.

Contacted, Mustapha reiterated that “we had a meeting yesterday [Wednesday] and we arrived at a decision to drain the two areas for 12 hours each.” He also said the region deployed two pumps to work in the area but they have to avoid flooding the dams.

Pumps have also been installed in other areas and machinery has been deployed to Number 43 Village and other areas to undertake emergency works. The chairman told Stabroek News “The region is very concerned about saving crops but we cannot do that at the expense of people’s lives. The residential area in Yakusari is very vulnerable and we have to monitor the opening of the tube…”

But Babulall pointed out, “They [regional officials] are not blocking other areas. Since 1964 the drainage system was built and we never had this problem. I don’t know why they want to close now. They are really pressuring the farmers