[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Long awaited $349M Hope Canal Bridge was on Saturday (February 15) officially opened to vehicular traffic by President Donald Ramotar.
There the Head of State underscored that the East Demerara Water Conservancy’s (EDWC), Hope Canal Project will boost food security and foster other developments for Guyana.
He was joined by Minister of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Lionel Wordsworth, and several other Government Ministers.
“This is only part of total infrastructure projects that we are planning in our country…for us really to have rapid economic growth and for us to improve the quality of our lives, we have to invest in infrastructure to facilitate and encourage economic development and so this is part of that whole project,” the President told the Region Four residents gathered.
President Ramotar pointed out that the project, which was conceived after repeated flooding was experienced in the area, has importance from an economical, as well as humanitarian stand point.
“I myself have gone in those areas in times when there were floods, and I could attest to the way it wrenched our hearts, you will be less than human if you went to see the condition that the people were in, water flooding their homes. I remember going at one time and speaking to people right up to their step from a boat,” he said.
The President said what was more impacting was seeing farmers, some of the hardest working people in the world, putting in their labour and having to continuously witness it being destroyed or see their animals lost.
