Guyana to set up El Niño taskforce ahead of dry spell

With the current El Niño weather conditions expected to intensify soon, resulting in a long dry spell, a task force is being set up to spearhead the government interventions that may become necessary. “That task force will brief the Press and the nation on the issue and how to conserve so that we can see this potential crisis, through without too much ill effects, and interventions are made to ensure that the El Niño situation remain under control,” Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder said earlier today. He indicated that while the situation is just about normal at this stage, it will change in another two months.

“I think it is fair for us to say that although Guyana normally experiences two wet and two dry seasons per year, the short wet season which normally starts in the middle of November and goes to the end of January is probably threatened,” he told a media conference at his office in Georgetown. “So while things are okay at this point in time, the system might come under stress by the end of December if the short rains do not come, so we really have to start practising serious conservation.” Holder added that the agriculture sector would feel the effects of El Niño most.

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