Concept notes for Cunha Canal, Amerindian Fund get thumbs up from Norway $$ committee

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which is the partner entity for the Amerindian Development Fund can now request up to US$1.8 million for project proposal preparation activities while the World Bank which is the partner entity for the Cunha canal project can now request up to US$73 000 for project proposal preparation activities.

The GRIF is the mechanism through which monies from Norway’s five-year US$250 million forests partnership with Guyana are channelled to this country. Since the agreement was inked in 2009, there has been little movement on projects and it was only earlier this year that money started to flow although Norway has already deposited US$70 million into the GRIF which is overseen by the World Bank.

The funds have recently been the subject of intense debate after the opposition cut from the budget all but one dollar from an allocation of $18.39 billion covering a number of low carbon projects under the Ministry of Finance. The projects were the Amaila Falls Project ($16.4 billion), Amerindian land titling ($202.1 million), Amerindian Development Fund ($205 million), small and micro enterprise development ($512.5 million), adaptation project – Cunha Canal ($410 million) and institutional strengthening of agencies connected to the Low Carbon Development Strategy ($615 million).

The opposition argued that the allocation was expunged as there was no guarantee that the money would be released to Guyana by the World Bank.  It has been argued that the government should have handled this allocation by way of a conditional appropriation.

The Amerindian Development Fund will provide funds to all Amerindian communities to implement the projects that they identify as priorities for their social and economic development.

The US$1.91M Cunha Canal project is projected to increase the real time drainage capacity of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) by up to 30%. The Cunha Canal on the East Bank, which discharges into the Demerara River from the EDWC has not been working at its maximum capacity for a number of years. Resuscitation of the canal has long been called for particularly after the Great Flood of 2005, and following flooding in December 2008 the Guyana Citizens’ Initiative (GCI) called for the reopening of the sluice so as to aid in the drainage of the EDWC. At that time, the GCI had insisted that improving the Cunha sluice would be a better option than the proposed $3 billion Hope Relief Channel which would serve to drain the northern end of the EDWC.