– residents appeal for clearing of blocked canals

A HEAVY downpour on Wednesday night has left areas between numbers 64, 65, 67 and 68 villages on the Corentyne under water and residents are calling on the relevant authorities to clear the clogged canals to speed up drainage of the excess water.

At Number 68 Village, residents were busy cleaning and moving appliances and furniture to higher grounds.

“Around one ‘O’clock this morning (Thursday), me been asleep when me next door neighbour call me phone and ask me if me house flood and me say no, but when me come off the bed, me jump because the water reach me knee. Me holler call me son in the front room and when he come out he start holler too because the water high and we had to leff everything and sleep by me friend house, cause the bed all wet up afterwards”, Renika Hardial of Lot 3, Section A #68 village, East Berbice, Corentyne, related.

She said before leaving, she moved some appliances and other valuables to higher ground in her one-storey house and returned early in the morning to assess the damage.

Residents are blaming the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) for not putting measures in place to clean the main drainage canal which is “silted up” and filled with overgrown vegetation.

They are contending that the canal has not been cleared for the last 10 years and this is affecting the smooth flow of water.

“This canal that run at the back of the village takes the water from here (68 Village) all the way to 66 outfall and then out to the sea. It nah clean for over 10 years now. A couple of months or weeks now them clean the internal trenches, but what sense that make if the place for it to go block up. Where it gon pass?” asked Richard Pedro.

Pedro, now, 74, and a former sluice operator, recalled having seen floods in the past but nothing of this magnitude.

The elderly citizen lamented that since the sea defense commission built the ‘sea dam’ and handed it over to local authorities, nothing has been done since.

Pedro is now wondering who will compensate him for the loss of his stocks, including some 85 duck eggs, soon to be hatched.

Another resident Hardat Rowana feels that the situation would have been worse had he and other villagers not taken measures to remove a blocked tubing, allowing for the smooth flow of water.

“After the place flood, we realise the tubing block up and if it move, the water could drain off a lot faster, so we went to the NDC early in the morning and inform them and them say they gon try to get a machine to come. A couple hours pass and nothing na happen, so when we go back them say them nah get through with the machine so we cooperate and move it out; so come the water drop a little bit,” he said.

Overflowing pit latrines and drains pose a serious health problem and residents are calling on the authorities to urgently look into the situation.