Sea, river defences in targeted areas being restored – as US $30.9M project gets underway

Georgetown, GINA, May 06, 2016

Work Services Group’s (WSG) Coordinator, Geoffrey Vaughn said capital works under the US$30.9M sea and river defence resilience project have commenced in some of the targeted areas.

He said that Region Three is one such area where work is ongoing.

“We have others where maintenance works are being done in East Bank Berbice, particularly where enforcement of embankment is being done, also in Region Three we have embankment work being done so there’s quite a lot of work being done by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, and we intend to continue this,” Vaughn said.

The sea and river defence resilience project is a collaborative effort between the Government of Guyana and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to repair the country’s sea and river defences.

Over 90 percent of Guyana’s population lives along the coastal area, much of which lies below sea level and is subject to flooding.

“This is the government’s effort to protect the environment, people, assets, and livelihoods from flooding and contribute to the sustainable economic growth and future socio economic development of the country,” Vaughn said.

He added that work will begin in the other targeted areas shortly.

The project will see construction and rehabilitation works on sea and river defences in Regions Two, Three, Four and Six that will benefit 45,000 Guyanese.