WORK is forging ahead on the rehabilitation of three gravity-operated sea sluices which will see an increase in the discharge capacity of the drainage system for rainfall floodwaters in West Coast Berbice.
The three existing sluices in West Coast Berbice have a total drainage capacity of 2100 cubic metres per second (2100 m3/s).

The three sluices now under rehabilitation are the ones at Trafalgar/Union, at Golden Grove/Lovely Lass, and at Number 12 Village, all built in the 1920s. The rehabilitation of these sluices will result in an additional conveyance capacity of approximately 1300 cubic metres per second (1300 m3/s) for rainfall water drainage.
The additional discharge capacity will provide a welcome relief for flood-prone areas in West Coast Berbice, General Manager of the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMADA) Aubrey Charles said last week.
He said that the decision to rehabilitate the old drainage sluices followed a visit to the area by Minister of Agriculture, Mr Noel Holder, at the height of the rainfall-related floods in West Berbice earlier this year.
The minister reportedly instructed engineers from the MMA/ADA and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to examine the old sluices, which were at the time out of commission, to see which ones could be resuscitated.
The NDIA was also instructed to provide the approximately $30M needed for rehabilitation of the sluices.

The NDIA is also executing the excavation of outfall channels on the seaward side of the system to facilitate the flow of water into the Atlantic Ocean, which is being currently blocked by siltation due to an expanding coastline.
The MMA/ADA is involved with the actual rehabilitation of the sluices, utilising their permanent construction staff.

Charles disclosed last week that the rehabilitated sluice at Trafalgar/Union is 100% complete, while the outfall channel is about 90% complete, with some additional works to be done to deepen it through migrating mud banks which had developed in front of it.

The doors for the sluice at Golden Grove/ Lovely Lass have been completed, but installation of the winches and excavation of outfall channel through the mud bank on the seaward side are currently ongoing.
“The NDIA is working there right now with a pontoon and excavators,” Charles said. “They are working on the channel coming in, and then they’re working on a channel going out to reach that.”
Noting that the sluice at Number 12 is about 85% complete, Charles said:
“What remains there is [sic] the rollers. We want to install new rollers, pulleys and wire ropes; and the outfall channel gotta be done.”
He said that there is a dragline currently working on the channel at Number 12, which will take flood waters into the primary drainage canal and through the rehabilitated sluice.
He disclosed that there has been no work on the seaward outfall channel at Number 12 to date, since this is awaiting the NDIA pontoon’s completion of the work at Golden Grove/Lovely Lass sluice.

A reliable source has noted that these developments will undoubtedly impact favourably on the drainage of floodwaters in the West Coast of Berbice.
The efficiency of the system will, however, depend on the efficiency of the tertiary and secondary elements, since the sluices can only discharge water delivered to them.
“If the secondary drains are in bad shape; if the tertiary drains are clogged up, then the conveyance capacity of these channels may not be sufficient to bring enough water towards these outfall sluices,” the source said.
Charles said that the three sluices should be completed within a month, following which the MMA/ADA will be examining how they impact on the discharge of floodwaters in flood-prone areas of West Coast Berbice.
He said that their efficiency may inspire the MMMA/ADA to look at rehabilitating two or three more discarded sluices.
“We are already thinking about two, namely: One at Number 22 Bel Air Hopetown; one where the GPL office used to be; and one at Bush Lot by Phagoo Dam going out,” he said.