Guyana, Brazil working on developing hydro-power plants here –Foreign Affairs Minister

COOPERATION continues to be strengthened between Guyana and Brazil as consultations were recently held with the private sector and residents in the Upper Mazaruni on the development of hydro-power plants in the Upper and Middle Mazaruni areas.

This is according to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett who made the announcement Monday at the ministry’s annual end-of-year press conference.

“We are at a stage of feasibility studies, and what we are currently working on is a Treaty with Brazil on the sale of energy,” Minister Rodrigues told reporters.

She said the Treaty of which she spoke is very important for the countries to progress with the operations, because “if we are going to develop hydropower facilities and sell energy to Brazil, we must have a treaty that will be the overarching framework for doing that.”

IMPORTANCE OF TREATY
She further added that this will be the first time- if the project is successful- that Brazil will be doing such a project outside of their country, so this is also why the treaty is important.

Additionally, Brazil will be submitting a draft treaty shortly, which the ministry will be looking at with the prime minister and also other expertise, because this is the first time Guyana will take part in such a project as well.

“I am hoping that we would be able to see this project to fruition in the not-so-distant future,” according to the minister; she noted that this will be a major step towards developing Guyana’s economy.

But she stated that this treaty is what we are working on at this time, because no consortium is going to invest in such a major project without knowing that there will be some security of the sale of energy to Brazil.

ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT
According to Minister Birkett, efforts at joint collaboration between Guyana and Brazil are not new, having commenced soon after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1968.

She said that several Memoranda of Understanding have since been signed by successive Governments.

After being approved in the National Assembly earlier this year, a Brazilian consortium undertook a pre-feasibility study to determine the potential of hydropower in the Upper and Middle Mazaruni. The US$45M study began in April and had a duration of one year but ended before, thus making the current feasibility study possible.

Minister Rodrigues at a meeting in March had stated that the hydropower station in Upper Mazaruni would have an installed capacity of 3,000 megawatts and the other in Middle Mazaruni would have an installed capacity of 1,500 megawatts.

According to Mahender Sharma, Head of the Guyana Energy Agency, at the meeting in March it was stated that the feasibility studies for the Upper and Middle Mazaruni are intended to identify the social, environmental and economic impacts of a hydropower plant in the areas.

Source - http://guyanachronicle.com/guy...gn-affairs-minister/