Water-starved Corentyne rice farmers are being urged to conserve as the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) moves to repair a damaged pump at Manarabisi, Skeldon and deploy another to Black Bush Polder (BBP) to irrigate thousands of acres of rice fields.
“By the end of next week, both sites would be restored to their capacity,” Chief Executive Officer of the NDIA, Lionel Wordsworth told Stabroek News yesterday. He explained that about three weeks ago, two of the three pumps that service BBP went down due to mechanical failure. One has been repaired and was back in operation from Saturday while the other cannot be repaired because of its age and the fact that parts for the machine are no longer manufactured, he said.
Wordsworth said that a 120 cusecs hydro flow pump is being deployed to the area as an interim measure to add capacity and it should be in
