Dredging of the Pomeroon River Mouth will recommence by October 5, 2023, a statement from GAICO said yesterday.
The statement came after a report in Stabroek News about the delay in the conclusion of the project which was meant to provide flood relief to farmers and residents.
Gaico said that last year dredging had commenced and a substantial amount of work was done using excavators on a barge up to the Waini River mouth but that due to the shallow draft that existed prior to the commencing of dredging, the Hopper Dredge could not be used on the project.
As a consequence, Gaico said that it had to change its dredging strategy to utilize a Cutter Head Dredge which can operate in a very shallow draft environment. The company yesterday said that the Cutter Head Dredge was on a major job and will be demobilized from that job this week and moved to the Pomeroon immediately thereafter.
On September 12, Stabroek News reported that eighteen months after a massive contract was signed, dredging of the Pomeroon River in Region Two was yet to be finished and the contractor has deemed the task more complex than had been anticipated.
On April 12, 2022, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) under the Ministry of Agriculture signed a $569,300,000 contract with Gaico Construction and General Services Inc for the dredging of the mouth of the Pomeroon River.
The project was signed since for years farmers from villages along the river had been plagued by inadequate drainage due to extreme siltation at its mouth.
The project was to have been completed around September last year and this was then pushed back to February this year.
As of this month, the project is yet to be completed and no explanation had been issued by the NDIA or the Ministry of Agriculture.
Chief Executive Officer of Gaico Construction, Komal Singh when contacted by Stabroek News had acknowledged that there was a timeline however he said that there was a delay due to the fact that the project was not done with an understanding of its full complexity.
“There was a timeline to the project but the project was never done in detail to understand the full complexity of the project. So, this is just a continuation of the project”, he said.
Singh said that works had been halted but they will resume soon.
Chair of the Region Two council, Vilma Desilva when contacted had noted that the company continues to give deadlines which it is not meeting.
“What they told us is that they had to create a channel where they had to use the long boom excavators, which they did and after they created the channel that is when they will bring in the dredge. So, the machines are still there parked at the mouth and we are still awaiting the dredge. So, I have to get an update on time because they have committed every time you call in two weeks and that is the most I can’t say”, she told Stabroek News.
