$ 5.1B allocated to strengthen sea defenses, rivers
A Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, delivers the $ 383.1 billion 2021 budget
Kaieteur News – The People’s Party / Civic Progressive Party (PPP / C) government, aimed at strengthening Guyana’s river and sea defense, has allocated $ 5.1B to repair and protect those same areas.
During yesterday’s 2021 budget presentation, the Senior Minister at the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance reminded Dr. Ashni Singh, National Assembly and listeners of the consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels on Guyana’s sea defense and river infrastructure. With this, the Senior Minister added that these results “can have a devastating impact on Guyana’s economy as the majority of its inhabitants are on a low coastal plain.”
In his presentation, he continued, “Within two days of taking office, our Ministers were based in Dantzig, to tackle the destruction of huge stretches of the Mahaicony sea defense. Flood waters flooded indoor farmlands and residential communities leading to loss of property, livestock and farming activities. The previous administration was negligent in anticipating and adequately addressing the situation, causing the new Government to use emergency arrangements to seal the breach, which had remained open and threatened for over a month in previously. ”
With the goals of addressing this, Dr, Singh noted for 2021, a total of $ 5.1 billion has been budgeted to further strengthen our sea and river defense infrastructure. He added that the aim for this year is to build, restore and maintain sea and river defense infrastructure in areas including villages such as Dantzig, Prospect, Content, Fairfield, Zealand, Cane Garden, Uitvlugt, Anna Catherina, No. 63 Beach, Manila, and Bygeval.
The Minister also mentioned that the government is continuing to monitor our shoreline closely, by reconstructing the sea defense rangers, using drone technology to monitor shoreline movement and erosion and impoundment cycle, intensifying routine maintenance and deploying piles of armor rock to strategic locations, to ensure rapid response mechanisms are in place to avoid breaches.
“As we continue to take concrete steps to protect our vulnerable shoreline,” said Dr. Singh, “we have found that existing conventional hard infrastructure solutions are expensive and cannot adapt to rising sea levels and the vulnerabilities of climate change. For this reason we intend to promote natural interventions in the form of restored groynes and mangrove forests from natural replanting and regeneration, to complement our significant investment in hard structures. “
Against this, the Minister noted that $ 50 million was budgeted for in 2021 to build geotextile rubble groynes, and to carry out topographic surveys.