Dear Editor,
We have an active Water Users’ Association (WUA) within the Hague/ Blankenburg Neighbourhood Democratic Council ‒ a rice cultivation area. This WUA has been in active existence for more than 20 years. It was born of a pilot project founded by the IDB and it has been and is still very useful to all rice farmers within its service areas.
Mr George Nedd who was once regional coordinator of the said organization, is now the current chairman. He is a veteran in this field, as he was one of those who went to India and the Philippines to understudy water users’ associations, in the Far East. This mission was sponsored by the Guyana government and the United States Agency for International Development in 1996.
Very much like India and the Philippines, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority has been working in close collaboration with all WUAs across the country; the only missing link in comparison with what goes on in the Far Eastern countries is that the auditing of our books is not being done. In the above-mentioned countries this is a very stringent rule adhered to by central government. The authority of a WUA does not give it the privilege of being exempt from its books being audited by the Auditor General’s office. Almost all the regional executive officers are too complacent to take on this important task. The people’s interest is secondary to their political party interest, which is primary at all times.
Members of the WUA management board have the power to collect revenue, and expend it on the maintenance of all primary and subsidiary canals on a monthly basis. In keeping with transparency, a certification form has to be signed by a prominent farmer, after verification of the quality of work done. Payment takes place shortly after this procedure.
In recent times, I have noticed that very poor quality work passed the criteria for payment. The workmen have not been moving the cut vegetation and dead stuff out of the trenches. They roll same and leave it at the edge of the parapets. After a number of years, this practice leads to wider parapets and narrowed trenches. I have always been an advocate for good maintenance work, but what is now happening in the name of the WUA is an act of fraud involving public funds. Workers do not cut parapets any more, but they are being paid $40.00 per rod.
I wish to say that some members of the management board are guilty of negligence.
Yours faithfully,
Ganga Persaud
