Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Irrigation unit within the Agriculture department organised a cleaning and distilling activity on the La Gogue irrigation water network and barrage yesterday morning.
This formed part of a series of meetings with farmers regarding irrigation.
The senior irrigation officer, Serge Larue, explained that the agriculture department will be working in partnership with the farmers to do some distilling in the reservoirs and clean the irrigation lines.
“We have a little bit of a workforce problem,” he admitted.
The farmers had agreed to the cleaning and some had even joined in to help.
Mr Larue explained that during the dry season there are some issues with the water and the department finds itself having to do distilling regularly.
Furthermore, Mr Larue said if nothing is cleaned farmers will be getting dirty water. “If the foot valve is affected with the gravel, it will not work and the filter will be blocked,” he explained.
Mr Larue stated that at La Gogue itself, there are eight farmers who will benefit from this activity. He discussed the simple techniques that will be used to do the cleaning. “It is not complicated, we use a machete to clean the line and we use the rake to take away all the dirt.”
There are definitely environmental concerns to take into account when considering the drainage.
“Once you finish cleaning it you have to take out the grass from the drainage because it will block your system.”
The workers and volunteers will also be safely equipped with their overalls and boots.
Mr Larue stated they usually do this exercise three to four times a year but distilling is usually done during the rainy season.
In addition, the place where the pump house is located belongs to the Agricultural department.
This will be the second time that they have done this. The first location was Hermitage. In the future, they will be doing it in other locations such as Praslin, Port Glaud, Val d’Andorre and Montagne Posée.
Mr Larue encourages all farmers to use a ballcock to fill up their tank because if there is none, the water will overflow and water will be lost.
To conclude, once someone is assigned a piece of agricultural land from the department of agriculture, the law states that the farmer has to make sure they have their basin. “Before the department gives you water, you need to have the basin and the ballcock and then we give you the water connection.”
One of the farmers taking part in yesterday’s exercise was Jerris Moncherry, who highlighted why water was essential. “So we organised among ourselves to clean up here,” he stated, adding there was a general water problem. “From what I am understanding they are doing something to reduce the problem,” he concluded. Everything was expected to be cleaned by midday yesterday.
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