Salt water from the recent spring tides has entered the rice lands in the Mahaicony Backlands and farmers are unsure of future cultivation since the land has become salted and will not be able to sustain growth.

This occurrence is one that the farmers have been dreading as their livelihoods are sustained through rice cultivation and livestock rearing. Currently, farmlands in the communities between Dantzig and Zealand are inundated by salt water.

Two separate springtides over the last month have had devastating effects on the lives of residents leaving them to cope with unexpected damage as well as being flooded. The residents of Mahaicony became vulnerable as a result of the breaches in the sea defence along Dantzig to Fairfield.  The three-kilometre stretch along the shoreline is currently being impacted by major erosion of the foreshore and depletion of the mangrove fringe.

“At Mahaicony, significant stretches of earthen embankment have been subjected to severe erosion and overtopping due to the exceptional natural erosion of the foreshore and the depletion of the system of mangrove. The critical condition of the shoreline has escalated due to the impacts of the current spring tide. Major breaches have occurred releasing salt water into the adjacent Bellamy Canal and agriculture lands…” the Ministry of Public Infrastructure had stated.(stabroek news)…[+]