Stop playing politics with Amaila Project – Former GGDMA Executive Director

Former Executive Director of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners’ Association (GGDMA), Edward Shields, has called on the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to stop playing politics with the Amaila Falls Hydro Power (AFHP) project, and noted that people with the skills to do so, should mobilise the citizens to conduct a survey to find out what the people of Guyana want.

The Hydro Electric Power (Amendment) Bill was tabled in the National Assembly and its passage was essential for the moving ahead of the AFHP which aims to bring cleaner and cheaper electricity for Guyana. The Bill was approved with the support of the Alliance for Change, but APNU voted against it. The result was that the investor Sithe Global has withdrawn from Guyana.

Edward Shields

During an interview with the National Communications Network, Shields compared the AFHP with the Upper Mazaruni Hydro Electric Project planned during the 1970s. He said that one of the difficulties which prevented the project from being finished was finance. “When we decided to raise the money to do the project …the Venezuelan Government stepped in and said that that was part of its territory. As a consequence everybody backed off which halted the project.”

Shields noted however, that for the AFHP, the money to build the project is available, “the fact that we have access to the money and now we are not moving forward, leaves me dumbfounded. Hydro is very important and the byproducts that we benefit from,” he observed.

He explained further that although the Mazaruni project did not come to fruition, “we still have a road. The road from Wismar, to Puruni, Itaballi, all the way to Olive Creek…and it opened up those areas for community development, mining and forestry, which Guyanese are still benefitting from today,” he pointed out.

Shields said the same results were expected from the road that is being built now, which will open up the surrounding areas. “Everybody only concentrating on the hydro power itself, but what of the development of the country and the hinterland?” he questioned. He noted that the road will allow communities to develop and people and agriculture, forestry, and mining.

“I really can’t understand that people who have been elected to serve the citizens of Guyana are playing politics. I mean the hydro power at Amaila Falls didn’t just spring up this year. This is several years in the making, so how come at the last minute, suddenly there is objection? The reason for this, I have no apology for saying, is politics; it’s tit for tat; now the opposition in parliament are flexing their muscles at the expense of the Guyanese people.”

Shields expressed the hope that the same reality that finally dawned on the AFC would somehow dawn on APNU. “Let’s come together, let’s look at the matter, don’t let’s play politics, the country needs the hydro, the country needs the road, it’s far gone, hundreds of millions of Guyana dollars have been spent,” he declared.

Regarding APNU’s claim that there is not sufficient information available to them, Shields stated that he still cannot comprehend what they are saying.

“The responsibility to negotiate and to go into agreements is the Government’s. The Government goes into negotiating, and there are confidentiality clauses in any type of agreement,” he said. Shields further explained that “until certain things are inked, you don’t negotiate openly.

As to whether or not the APNU got such information… I don’t know what they are talking about. I think they are speaking about primarily the finances, how you come up to this cost.”

Again he said that this is not a political issue, but something that could be worked out, “they can sit down a day or two…I saw they had meetings  with the President and Prime Minister… all these documents were shown to them… I think it is just playing games. This is political,” Shields reiterated.

Observing that politics has its role, he said that in the case of the AFHP which is so necessary to the development of Guyana and to encourage future investments, “this will damage us, because people now coming to Guyana will now have to incur additional expense, doing feasibility studies of their own to find out if it’s worth their time.”

Shields remains convinced that the majority of Guyanese don’t want the project to fail. He is also of the view that while there are many things that the opposition wants, they are using the AFHP strictly as leverage to get other benefits.