During a tour on Sunday of the mouth of the Abary Creek which is being desilted a resident stood “waist-deep” in the channel of the river to prove that a long-boom excavator is needed for the job.
The resident, Mahase, said they suffer major losses of crops and livestock as a result of the flooding and they are pleased that the desilting which started two weeks ago has helped the water to recede faster.
Officials of the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) took this reporter and a few farmers from the area to see how the work was progressing.
The farmers agreed that the water was “pulling faster now” but insisted that the long-boom excavator would be more effective. “The short-boom can only clear the parapet but we need the long-boom machine to go to the depth of the river.”
They told this newspaper that they had made a request a long time ago for a long-boom machine to be mounted on a pontoon to carry out the work but the authorities were denying that such a move would bring relief to them.
“If they [government] de start to clear this creek since we ask them the flood wouldn’t affect we so much. I know dem waiting on Venezuela to dredge the creek but in the meantime this gon help we a lot,” Mahase said.
According to him, “Since MMA make this Abary scheme now they doing work on the river mouth. We glad if dem could continue the work where the people live and farm.”
Mahase had told Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud during his visit to Region Five that residents were being neglected and the creek was not being cleared despite repeated requests.
Large-scale cattle farmer in the creek, Dennis Ross offered to provide his short-boom machine as he had already lost about 12 cows and wanted to provide relief “to myself and the other farmers.”
Government agreed to supply the fuel and labour for the task. He had said that a lot of sediment, including an iron object and pieces of wood had been removed.
He too feels that a long-boom excavator which can go to a depth of 50 ft would have been better for the job. The short-boom machine, he said, only reaches about 10 ft.
Two excavators
Operations and Mainten-ance Manager Randolph Primo told this newspaper that the MMA has two excavators but they are both occupied. One of the machines is empoldering 18,000 acres of new land at First Savannah, Mahaicony Creek.
Primo said the other excavator is currently being used to re-design the Bellamy canal to increase the drainage capacity in the area. Besides, he said, each of the machines weighs 28 tonnes and would be too heavy to fit on the pontoon.
According to him even the smaller excavator [580 C] that is carrying out the work is causing “the front of the pontoon to actually be submerged. There is no way that the long-boom machines would have been able to fit and MMA does not have a pontoon to take that kind of load.”
He had agreed that “an excavator with a longer reach would have been more effective.” He said though that the equipment being used at present would bring some relief “even though movements can be pretty slow.”
He could not say when the Venezuelans would commence dredging the mouth of the creek but said “studies were carried out by the technical people
