East Coast-The entire operation of releasing water from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) into the northern relief channel of the Hope/Dochfour outfall has been deemed successful. This was reported last evening by Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth. He told the Government Information Agency that water is currently being released into the Atlantic Ocean via the eight-door sluice, one of the components of the Hope Canal project, and that the level of the EDWC has begun to drop.Wordsworth said further work will be done tomorrow to ensure a higher level of release from the canal, and the level of discharge will progressively increase in the coming days.
Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder joined the team at Flagstaff on the EDWC, and later at the northern relief channel where the eight-door sluice is located. The entire operation became necessary due to the high water level in the EDWC and to safeguard the structural integrity of the conservancy’s earthen embankments.
The release of water began at 06:00 hrs today, and was facilitated by workers cutting the EDWC embankment to have water flow into the northern relief channel. According the NDIA head, this cut, in the vicinity of the Head Regulator was widened at 12:00hrs to enable a greater flow from the conservancy into the Hope Outfall.
Water is also being released from the EDWC into the Demerara River via the Land of Canaan, Kofi and Cunha relief channels. Overseeing the exercise today were Minister Holder, consultants, ministry officials, contractors and other NDIA officials. The Agriculture Ministry had reported on Friday that the EDWC water levels were 58.25 GD at Flagstaff, 57.70 GD at Lama and 54.85 GD at Land of Canaan which were above the full supply level of 57.50 GD. The height of the Conservancy Dam is 59 GD. The release is the first official test of the $3.6 billion Hope Canal project.
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