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CCNTV6
  • 6 months ago
Aranguez South farmers say rain has been weaponised against them by the previous government and they are pleading with the UNC government to come to their aid. The Minister of Works has promised to meet with them and find a satisfactory resolution.
Transcript
00:00It's been decades of distress, say Arangwe's farmers.
00:30This is what the floodgate looked like hours before our cameras arrived.
00:46As Pundit Satyanan Maharaj, head of the Arangwe's United Farmers Association, puts it,
00:52the reins have been weaponized against the citizens of Arangwe's because of their voting patterns over the many years by the PNM.
01:01He tells us the reluctance to help farmers was politically motivated.
01:06Farmer Dolalchan explains the short fate of the three pumps installed by the previous Kamala-Passad-Bissessa regime.
01:14This pump under me was neglected under the Ministry of Works.
01:18The third and newest pump, he says, lasted no longer than one and a half years because the area was not maintained.
01:48There is a more updated version of pump. However, that pump mash up.
01:54All the oil spitting out from that pump due to one thing, giving a complaint to the Ministry of Works over and over
02:01that the road cave down inside of there and clog up the whole system, causing pressure on the pump and damaging the pump.
02:09And them is million dollars pump.
02:10A temporary mobile pump was brought and moved in short order.
02:14The last place I see that, I see that by the Grand Baza, to make sure that the Grand Baza ain't get floured out.
02:20But what was farming like when the pumps did work?
02:24The few times it worked, it didn't make the whole Arangwe's get floured out.
02:29Some places down here get floured out. I get floured out too.
02:33But how nothing is working now? The whole entire place, which is over the highway in Arangwe's district area,
02:39all these people get floured out. So if you walk in the edge of the highway and you watch that is where you see,
02:44all them get out and they drown out. Because here is the base where we need the water to come up from the rice land
02:51with enough pumps to go into the Karnwe River. What's the problem we have now?
02:57We have the Karnwe River coming inside of here.
02:59There has been no maintenance of equipment. The farmers say the area too is overgrown with lilies
03:06and not desilted in close to a decade. We learn that no drainage workers are here to man the gates.
03:15The government put in a $3 million dam there and it works automatically.
03:22When any wood goes inside of here and sticks, it cannot close off.
03:25So as the farmers have to risk their life to go down on Saturday to try to clean it all
03:30because the ministry don't have no money and the ministry aren't employing nobody here.
03:35Today you come down here, today is the Monday miss. You seen any workers here?
03:40No, we farmers here. It are no workers here.
03:45That work could have worked since Friday, no workers here to operate these damper.
03:49In the meantime, the farmers say they've withstood millions of dollars in losses.
03:54Well miss, I hang on a string right now praying for this river to go down because I have 100
03:59other chickens inside of here. I could speak on behalf of some of these farmers and them
04:04thousands of dollars that are made with water mill and it have farmers with bike and it have a lot
04:09of farmers. They operate the gates themselves and undertake what works they can.
04:15Now this is the height of the water that's been flowing over here. Over these years.
04:19Now all these things built here, this is for my building. So I spend my money here to build all this
04:25and why? Because at times we had the whole entire river flowing over here.
04:31Works and Infrastructure Minister Jolene John, when contacted, said she spent most of her morning
04:37speaking with St. Joseph MP Davish Maharaj, who sent her a list of items for urgent attention.
04:43Of the five items, four were either completed or underway. Minister John says, quote,
04:49I am meeting with the technical team tomorrow. Then we will arrange a meeting on site with the
04:55farmers by Thursday to ensure the resolution is complete and satisfactory, end quote.
05:01Ravishutawari Rupnarain, TV6 News.
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