Work to start soon on Essex Valley water project, NIC boss promises
Published:Tuesday | March 29, 2022 | 12:09 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
A £35.5-million (approximately J$7-billion) project to bring irrigation water to farmers in the Breadbasket Parish is set to get under way shortly, after being stuck in the pipeline since 2017.
Joseph Gyles, CEO of the National Irrigation Commission Limited (NIC), told The Gleaner last week that materials to get the Essex Valley Agriculture Development Project going are expected to be delivered to the island by June.
Some 700 farmers are expected to benefit from the project, which is funded through the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund and is being administered by the Caribbean Development Bank. The project should have begun in October 2017 and was originally scheduled to be completed in June 2023.
Gyles told The Gleaner that the COVID-19 pandemic was partly to blame for the delay as it had caused considerable disruption in the logistics business.
“The pandemic would have sort of set us back because of the whole supply chain,” he said, adding that the NIC is making efforts to expend the resources allotted to the project and ramp up the execution of other outstanding projects as the new fiscal year approaches.
As part of the procurement process, the NIC will acquire pipes, fittings, pumps, and other important project pieces to move construction “full speed ahead” on 810 hectares of land.
The NIC so far has procured office supplies, motor vehicles, pipe storage, yard equipment, monitoring equipment and renewable energy systems for the St Elizabeth project.
Because some equipment are still outstanding, the NIC has requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for a deadline extension to December 2023.
Speaking on other upcoming projects, Gyles said that there would be the installation of more than 90 kilometres of pipes in the southern areas of St Catherine, Clarendon, and Manchester to facilitate irrigation water for vulnerable farmers utilising more than 1,500 hectares of land.
“Within the next year and a half [to] two years, we should see significant increase in irrigative agriculture,” said Gyles.
The NIC CEO said that the deployment of these irrigation systems will help Jamaicans achieve greater food security.
As expectant farmers await the project’s implementation, Gyles said that even though engineering projects will always have unknown risks, he believes that the NIC has reached a stage at which it is confident that it can handle any further challenges which may arise.
The only potential setback which it would not be able to manage, he acknowledged, would be periods of heavy rainfall, but even then, Gyles gave the assurance that the agency has learned over the years how to mitigate any unforeseen circumstances.