President announces $3.5B flood-relief package

President Dr. Irfaan Ally over the weekend announced a $3.5B package which forms part of a major $7.8B to help households and farmers bludgeoned by recent heavy-rainfall which flooded large swaths of the country during the annual May/June season.

President Ally said some 52,000 households and farmers who own some 92,000 acres of farms and farmlands will benefit from the multi-billion-dollar package.

“The sugar industry was also significantly affected with estimated losses in the fields of over $1.5B. Over 50 percent of mining operations were affected, as mining communities were cut-off as a result of infrastructural damage. Our initial assessment estimates rehabilitation work in excess of $1B for the mining community,” the President said in his announcement of the scheme.

Experts have estimated that the local economy suffered some $23 loss of production, the President said.

“Damage to the forestry sector, loss of production and damage to equipment is estimate at an excess of $8B. The total, socio-economic impact assessment is currently being examined by UN ECLAC.  This would give us an overall understanding as to the cost of this flood to the economy, regions and communities,” the Guyanese leader said about the consequences of showers, the highest in Guyana in the last 40 years jeopardizing over 300 communities in the country’s 10 Administrative Regions.

The country’s initial response was to save lives, protect livelihood, secure health services, and ensure enough food and shelter to satisfy the needs of the people, Ally explained.

“These efforts saw the distribution of more than 80,000 food hampers, 45,000 cleaning hampers, and more than 5000 medical kits across all 10 administrative regions. More than 10 shelters were established, and extensive support was given to farming communities,” in addition to deploying an extensive fleet of machinery to support regions and communities in their efforts.

“The structure to manage the flood included a Cabinet task force, a multi-stakeholder national emergency operation centre and 10 regional emergency operation centres. Having regards for the massive disruption in the economy and household level, particularly the Agriculture Sector, the Government committed to direct transfers to households and farmers to allow them in the first instance, to return to some level of normalcy in their homes whilst supporting the Agriculture Sector to return to productive capacity so as to mitigate against potential food shortages whilst at the same time supporting the farming community,” Dr Ali said.

“Whilst some large farmers where severely affected, especially in rice and poultry, the ceiling of assistance will not exceed $10M for individual farmers. As you are aware, $10B was approved in supplementary provisions to address these needs. From the data collected, approximately 52,000 households were affected in the following categories: homestead farmers, kitchen garden, and household exclusive of farms/gardens,” he said.

The quantum of support depends on which category the affected are placed.

“In these categories, farmers within the context of a homestead would receive $100,000 each, those with kitchen gardens will receive $50,000 each and household’s excluding homestead and kitchen garden will receive $50,000 each. The combined assistance to homestead farmers, kitchen gardens and households for these categories will be in excess of $3.5B,” President Ali said.