…as high tide ‘lashes’ Mahaicony, West Demerarea

AS warned by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) last week, sections of the low coastal plain, on Monday afternoon, experienced unusually high spring tide, which resulted in overtopping and flooding in some sections, including in Georgetown, and the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara and Mahaica Berbice Regions.

CDC Director General, Lieutenant Colonel, Kester Craig, last evening informed that “the Regional Disaster Management System has been activated and deployed to some of the affected communities”, via his Facebook page.

The CDC is scheduled to conduct an assessment on Tuesday, and distribute sanitation hampers in Essequibo Islands-West Demerara. Hamper distribution to Mahaica-Berbice already began on Monday. It was last Thursday that the CDC had issued an advisory, warning of spring tide from October 25 – 30, with tide peaking on October 28, Monday, with 3.31 metres at 16.13 hrs. Residents living in low lying and riverain areas along Regions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were put on high alert and asked to take precautions.
The natural disaster comes just weeks after spring tide in September also peaked over three metres and affected many villages on the West Coast of Demerara. One such village that was yet again hard-hit by the overtopping on Monday was Anna Catherina. Residents swore it was the highest flooding their village has ever seen.
Sixty-one-year-old Mohammed Kalam estimates that flood waters in his yard was over 16 inches high.

“It started just after four (o’ clock). This was higher than the last time, three times more high. Me had on the long boots and til suh water reach. It had four in casting here [by his door] before, so last time me cast up one feet more on top of that, water still come over that,” Kalam declared.

Though the hide tide was natural and unavoidable, the residents believe that the situation was compounded and led to flooding due to a lack of upkeep of a key drainage system in the village. “Them nah dig the [drain], we deh like a fish pond here.  When this water come over here it nah gah nowhere fuh go, so it nah run,” said Kalam, who has been living in the village some 25 years now. As night fell and the water began to subside he was still trying to bail water out of his bedroom. As she saw waves as tall as some of the houses thrashing against the seawall, shopkeeper Jasmattie Ramnaress, was left worried. “Meh heart really hurt meh. The whole place suh this water start come. This ah the first time we get this flood with water so high. When the water flash it deh high as my neighbor house,” she noted. She too was spending her evening dipping water out of her house, and complained of a drain in the community not being wide enough to handle the water flow. On the sea dam, a squatter’s shanty was knocked over by the waves and sent rolling down the dam.
Emergency works

Guyana Chronicle reported on Saturday that emergency works are currently being conducted at heavily-eroded and breached sections of the Mahaicony sea defence. The works were aimed at lessening the impact of the current high tide. Executing these emergency flood protection works is the Sea and River Defence Department which has taken note of the sections of sea defences impacted by the cyclic erosion of the foreshore and natural depletion of the mangrove forest.

In a release on Thursday, the ministry reported that significant overtopping has been occurring at the sea defence embankment within a 3.0 kilometres stretch of shoreline between Fairfield and Dantzig on the East Coast of Demerara. “The Ministry of Finance recently approved a contingency allocation to support the efforts of the ministry of Public Infrastructure in executing sea defence construction works at Mahaicony. These resources are being utilised to engage multiple contractors in key construction materials supplies and works execution contracts which will be executed concurrently to achieve faster implementation,” the ministry indicated.

According to the Sea and River Defence Department, the spring tide period would be one of the most pronounced for the year and would likely impact a number of vulnerable sections of the sea defence.

The ministry is therefore working to reinstate sections of the earthen embankment by constructing a rock armour facing on the seaward slope as an erosion control measure. The medium-term solution works are being undertaken by A and S General Contractors Inc. which is working at the Fairfield and Broomhall area and BK International Inc. which is working at the Dantzig area.

Four other contractors have been engaged to simultaneously deliver boulders to the worksites along the Mahaicony foreshore by barge, and with trucks via the ECD Highway.
Compromised access dams and the deterioration of the sea defence embankment have increased the difficulty of transporting construction materials.

According to Chief Sea and River Defence Officer, Kevin Samad, the intensity of erosion and the extensiveness of the foreshore impacts have not been experienced with such consistency along a localised section of Guyana’s coast in recent years. He stated that multiple incidents have taken place whereby tugs and barges have been accidentally grounded while delivering boulders to the site. “These challenges have contributed to delays in the advancement of the works being undertaken,” the release stated.
The Sea and River Defence Department, in collaboration with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), is also working to minimise the impact of overtopping on agriculture lands.

NDIA has installed three mobile pumps at Cottage and Dantzig to discharge excess water from the Bellamy Canal into the Atlantic Ocean, which prevents the intrusion of salt water onto adjacent agriculture lands.

Meanwhile, cofferdam works are also ongoing to prevent the flow of excess water to residential areas. In the future, Samad said that adaptation of the sea defences will be required to achieve a more resilient flood protection scheme.

“This overall integrated and strategic approach will require that consideration be given to
implementing foreshore stabilisation measures and landward offsets that would enable
adequate retention spaces to absorb overtopping discharge when extreme events are
experienced,” the release explained. Samad highlighted that while much progress has been made in reinstating sections of the Mahaicony Sea Defence to a reasonable degree, several exposed sections of embankment still exist. Nonetheless, the ministry has assured that the Sea and River Defence Department will continue to pursue actively, the required measures to mitigate the impact of flooding on coastal communities.

Even so, residents of low-lying coastal communities are being advised to take the needed precautions during the remainder of the spring-tide period