Gov’t invites bids for sea, river defence maintenance

—works to be done in Regions 3, 4, 5, 6

The PPP/C Administration has put maintenance of the nation’s sea and river defences on the front burner and has recently advertised Invitation for Bids (IFB) for the upkeep of numerous structures in Regions Three, Four, Five, and Six.

In Region Three, Invitations were published for works on the boulder face protection river defence at Maryville and Retrieve on Leguan Island in the Essequibo River.

Maintenance works on the earthen embankment have also been slated for Waterloo on Leguan. On the mainland of the region, works have been planned for the river defence at Parika and Mora.

In Region Four, work is also slated for Fort Groyne at Kingston and the concrete structure between Buxton and Enterprise.

Additionally, works would also be done on the earthen embankment in Region Five along the Mahaicony and Abary River dams and at D’Edward Village.

The Government has also planned upkeep of the embankment between Gongo Creek to Friends and Ma Retraite to Plegt Anker in Region Six.  The river defence along Sheet Anchor in that Region has also been tabled for maintenance in addition to both the earthen embankment and rock slope at Bush Lot/Maida in the Corentyne.

These works will be done through a $5.1 billion allocation in Budget 2021.

During the presentation of the $383.1 billion budget, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Hon. Dr. Ashni Singh said the investment will also target other priority areas.

“Earmarked for this year are the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of sea and river defence infrastructure in areas including Dantzig, Prospect, Content, Fairfield, Zealand, Cane Garden, Uitvlugt, Anna Catherina, No. 63 Beach, Manila, and Bygeval,” he said.

Further, the Government would continue to monitor the sea and river defences. These efforts would enable the Administration to be adequately prepared should there be any breaches of the structures.

On Friday last, Minister of Public Works, Hon. Bishop Juan Edghill while appearing on NCN’s “Budget in Focus” noted that having an early warning system in place would mitigate damage and loss should a breach occur. 

“You cannot wait until the seawall or river dam defence break away before you act. The rangers must be able to get out there on a daily basis because it is so susceptible that one day everything is fine, but some tide does some damage.

So, the people from the villages with the experience, who know about the changes in patterns, will be able to patrol these sea defences and give early warning so that interventions are made before something happens,” he had said.

The 2021 Budget would complement the progress made through the 2020 Emergency Budget to bolster sea defences in Regions Two, Four, Five and Six. 

Those works provided for the construction of nine lots of riprap sea defence works at Suddie, Region Two, Wakenaam and Leguan Islands, and Anna Catherina in Region Three; and Mosquito Hall, Region Five.

For Region Six, major sea defence works were also planned for No. 61 Village, Region Six.