Dear Editor

Sharma Solomon MP has re-opened questions about the economic viability of the Jagdeo-era proposed Amaila Falls hydropower dam on the Kuribrong River in Region 7 (‘Solomon seeks disclosure of Amaila Falls costs’, Kiskadee Watch, October 02 2026). In addition to doubts about the viability of this small generator (165 megawatts), the government also needs to revisit the data about the amount of water.  Amaila Falls was mentioned in Monenco’s survey of national hydropower potential in 1976.  The pooja-shop owner Fip Motilall acquired an interim licence to construct in 2002 and sold out the licence to Sithe Global in October 2009.  Sithe signed an engineering and construction agreement with China Railway First Group in September 2012 but the State-owned Chinese company was not willing to take a BOOT contract (build, own, operate, transfer).  The APNU+AFC coalition did not support the PPP government in carrying the financial risk under a different arrangement, so the deal collapsed and the licence expired in December 2013, after Kaieteur News had published a photograph in October of the almost dry river.

Norway was still supporting the first four versions of the Low Carbon Development Strategy and through NORAD funded a project review of the Amaila Falls proposal by the consultancy Norconsult which reported in December 2016.  Chapter 5 covers Hydrology and mentions the direct river flow measurements in June-July 1975 and June-August 2011.  Sithe Global restarted flow measurements in 2011 but stopped in 2013 when the scheme was ended.  Norconsult wrote (page17, section 4.1.3) ‘The live storage capacity in the AFHP reservoir is limited. The operation of AFHP will therefore follow a next to run-of-river pattern. The inflow estimate to the AFHP reservoir in the dry months is uncertain. It is clear, however, that the low season inflow will not be sufficient for continuous full capacity generation’. And on page 21, chapter 5: ‘We recommend that the programme for continuous water flow measurement is resumed as soon as possible and before a new main sponsor would be ready to take the front seat. 2-3 additional years of continuous flow data would provide a more reliable basis for an updated energy production simulation and thereby reduce the risks for both parties…’  Since the Norconsult report was made public, the hinterland of Guyana has begun to experience the effects of global climate heating, with longer dry-season droughts as well as more severe storms, and overall a decline in rainfall.  I have not found any report by Hydromet to show that the recommended continuous water flow measurements in the Kuribrong River have been restarted, so the dam project again looks like another infrastructural white elephant.

Moreover, Amaila Falls was under discussion before Exxon announced the discovery of the Liza-1 offshore oilfield in May 2015, and long before the proposals for gas-to-energy facilities at Wales and now in Berbice.  I am sure that we understand the attachment of Vice President Jagdeo to projects like the bagasse generator at Skeldon (which he was personally going to ‘fix’), and to the tilting concrete slab at Wales, but do we really need an intermittently functioning generator at Amaila in his portfolio?

Yours truly,

Janette Bulkan