Drainage authority Chairman, Lionel Wordsworth says that the Ministry of Agriculture will issue a statement as it relates to the $800m Adventure, Corentyne pump station.
Wordsworth’s statement came yesterday in response to questions from the Sunday Stabroek about the status of the project.
Saturday’s Stabroek News carried a letter by a resident of Adventure, Sarabjit Prashad which stated that almost a year had passed and the project had stalled.
According to the letter writer, “Work is stagnant. There seems to be no hurry in finishing it… A building or structure has not been constructed for the pump and there is no evidence of a pump for the project. Judging from how other pump stations work, the Adventure project is not even 10% completed, much less 50%. It raises some questions.”
He added: “It was supposed to mitigate flooding in the Black Bush Polder area and Cookrite Savannah but being incomplete, resulting in floods earlier this year in surrounding areas. This is the area that was inundated by floodwater in May 2021 turning it into a large lake. Stabroek News provided extensive coverage of the flooding and also carried an editorial on mishandling of infrastructure projects and failure to deter cultivation in the Cookrite Savannah”.
Sources in the region have said that the project was stalled for a while due to “technical issues” but works have recently recommenced.
The sources identified the contractor as Anil Sawh, of D. Sawh Mechanical Workshop. When contacted yesterday, Sawh lashed out at this newspaper, stating that he would be contacting his lawyers with regard to the letter carried in the newspaper.
Region Six Chairman, David Armogan distanced himself from the project. He told the Sunday Stabroek that he is unaware of who the contractor is since it is a National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) project.
Questioned whether as regional chairman he periodically checks on projects being carried out within the region, he said that “We don’t see the bill of quantities… I don’t even know who is the contractor.”
He continued, “All that we know, we see it’s a contract arranged by NDIA, I see some people working there and we does pass there sometimes and we does stop just to see what they are doing and stuff like that.”
He added “It is something to benefit my region, but this is the problem, if we don’t get the bill of quantities and I don’t get anything, wah I gun check for?”
At a recent outreach in the Corentyne Area, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha reminded that the government has been expending “large sums of money” on such projects.
“This year we will be building two pumps at a cost of $1.2 billion. I made the commitment when I was in Black Bush Polder that we will build a pump in Black Bush, an irrigation pump there and that we will have a drainage pump at Adventure so all the Black Bush Polder outlets will have pumps now.”
