Minister for Agriculture and Waterways, Dr. Mahendra Reddy says they are restricted by budget and will do dredging works on drains that are “emergency ones” in this financial year.
Dr. Reddy told this to a farmer of Naselai while answering a question during a meeting with farmers at Lakena in Nausori.
Some farmers during the meeting with Minister for Agriculture and Waterways, Dr. Mahendra Reddy
The farmer of Naselai had raised concerns that they were promised that agricultural drains will be dredged in August this year, however this did not happen and the recent downpour resulted in the flooding of their farms.
In response, Dr. Reddy stated that farmers are cultivating right to the edge of the drains which is not helping the situation.
Dr. Reddy says the current drains cannot hold the volume of water and this is why they have started to re-do the drainage system.
He has also revealed that they have decided to dredge the Waidamudamu river as this river is totally silted and the project will cost over $20 million.
The Ministry of Waterways and Environment was provided with a budgetary allocation of $1 million for improvement of farmland drainage in the 2019/2020 National Budget.
$500,000 was provided for irrigation support for farm development and $1 milllion was provided for the Drainage for Rural Residential Areas Programme for improvement of drainage in waterlogged areas.
An allocation of $3 million was also provided through the Drainage and Flood Protection Programme.
