By: Andrew Carmichael
Acres of transported farmlands at Lancaster Village have already been cleared without notification to farmers for one of the three Hope-like canals being built by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
After the discovery was made by the farmers on Tuesday, works were halted and the central government – through the Ministry of Agriculture – is reportedly planning to engage the affected persons.
On Tuesday, several excavators were being used to clear the lands, much to the surprise of the farmers.
“I had a couple beds farmland on this area! I ent seeing no mango trees, no coconut trees! I came here because I understand what is going on! I can’t even make out my part of the land with how the lands clear away now! I have to go and get surveyors and measure back my land…They can’t start a project and the people in the place ent know, and then come and destroy people farmland! I want them to put back my mango trees right where they were!” Nigel Mongo, a farmer, has said.
Samuel Fraser, another farmer, who cultivates rice and cash crops, explained that his parents had been cultivating the land since he was a child, and as he became old enough, he took over the operations, and has been making a living off of the land.
“My parents used to pay all of the rates and taxes for this land that I planting on! I now come to plow the rice field to plant rice, and I see the excavator inside heaping up the whole rice field! I go and talk to them and tell them this in my rice field and they can’t grade up this rice field so! They tell me that some contract passed to build a canal,” an enraged Fraser detailed.
Moreover, some farmers have said that, as recent as last weekend, they had harvested limes and other fruits, and had sold them at the market on Saturday. But when they returned on Tuesday to reap more of their produce, they found that their trees had were uprooted by the fleet of excavators.
According to Winston Hunt, who cultivates 100 acres of rice, at a community meeting facilitated by the Agriculture Ministry in August, farmers were informed of the project and were told that an existing canal would have been utilised.
“But today, now, it is something far different from what the Minister and the engineer Lionel had said. It is about eight excavators come, and they clean up a set of rice land in the cultivation area…farmland that get cocorite trees and mango trees they also clear off that! We had no knowledge that they wanted to use this farmland to make a canal,” Hunt declared.
Sharon Smith, Chairperson of the Hogstye/Lancaster Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), has said that after being informed of the development on Tuesday, she ventured into the cultivation area.
“I called Mr Armogan, the Chairman for Region Six. We spoke briefly, and he told me that he is not aware (of what is going on). Then I tried reaching out to the contractor who is undertaking the project, and he told me that the Regional Administration is aware of what is happening currently in Liverpool, and it is the Hope-like canal (that is being built),” Smith disclosed.
In a comment invited by this publication, Region Six Chairman David Armogan said the regional administration is not the entity undertaking the project. While the regional administration is aware of plans to construct the canal, it is the NDIA that has full control over the project.
The farmers have since asked the contractor to put this exercise on hold, and have pointed out that the work is encroaching on transported land.
NDIA Chairman Lionel Wordsworth has meanwhile told this publication that surveying is still ongoing, and he has confirmed that the excavators were sent to the area by the NDIA.
He has said the Agriculture Ministry would be meeting with landowners to iron out the issues, but he could not say when that engagement would take place.
