Dear Editor,

Is the government still proceeding with the Hope Relief Canal Project?

A few weeks ago the Guyana Chronicle reported that the consultants for the above project would be submitting their findings soon to the Minister of Agriculture. To date their findings have not been published in the press.

I understand, however, that in a recent meeting with local engineers and the Minister the consultants discussed their new findings which ironically agreed with what I have said in the many letters to the press re this project – that there will be problems with the supply of water at the intake structure to ensure a 2000 cusecs supply, and that the outlet structure will have to be built far outside the line of the existing sea defence alignment, making construction literally impossible. The cost will also be exorbitant, far exceeding the $3B quoted by the President.

They also now proposed a new long-term study to collect data, and the installation of water level gauges in the conservancy before a final design is carried out. The government, I understand, is now looking to the World Bank for a loan.

Initially, these same consultants in an earlier study recommended the construction of this project as necessity to drain the EDWC, and a contract was issued only recently to the local consultants to carry out surveys and design, etc.

The solutions to the EDWC problems appear to be a cash cow for consultants as more and more studies are carried out and yet no solution to the drainage problems is on the horizon.

I do hope the consultants’ findings are also published in full in the press in due course.

Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Alli