Preventing flooding needs collective work between residents, administrators

THE present flooding in Georgetown, the East Coast, East Bank and other places is a result of poor management when it comes to drainage and irrigation. 

I have seen just thirty minutes of constant rains flooded the entire city. Main Street and Water Street will flood in just about fifteen minutes because the drains are too shallow to contain the water that goes to the main trenches and canals.

It’s ridiculous that our administrators and engineers still cannot learn from their past mistakes since the 2005 flood. For water to run off the yards into the street drains to avoid flooding the drains just can’t be two or three feet deep it has to be about ten feet deep and the trenches need to be deeper to contain the water. Residents also need to maintain their drains in their yard by building it about five feet deep in concrete palls and raise their land level to avoid flooding in their homes. They also need to raise their floor level and build a concrete seal around it over four feet in height to protect their buildings.

Georgetown has too many pavement sellers that need to be relocated into a separate market or arcade because these street vendors will throw their garbage in the drains when they finish selling. As I walked down King, Robb and Regent Streets, I clearly saw the garbage dumps getting bigger and bigger and many big businesses dispose their garbage on the pavements and the streets by giving it to street dwellers.
Even if we have deeper drains we now have to implement laws about littering and now the Christmas Season is around where we see more sellers than buyers
it means the garbage dumps will get bigger and the flood water won’t go anywhere because the drains are blocked by garbage dumpers.

Flooding is something we have been living with for many years because of bad drainage and irrigation. I have travelled this entire country and have seen main trenches and canals overtaken by bushes and trees it’s difficult to distinguish the trench from the dam. I was in Rose Hall Town recently where I grew up and was shocked when I looked at a trench I used to swim in as a boy. The entire trench was taken over by huge trees and bushes but it doesn’t seem to bother the town council. I walked a few blocks to go to Port Mourant and saw a trench we used to call Bunyan Trench in a more deplorable state than the one in Rose Hall. This huge black water trench used to be helping residents to wash, fish, and even water their garden but now it looks more like a dump heap rather than a trench.

I personally don’t think these problems are caused by the Ministers in Government. It’s caused by the NDCs and Town Councils who don’t care anything but they still collecting rates and taxes. It’s sad to see these guys trying to get a hymac to dig trenches when we are in the flood, they never prepare for the rains and they are fully aware about the seasons we have rains in Guyana. These flaws can be seen in every region because we have too much irresponsible people in the NDCs and Town Councils and most residents don’t care to do some self-help in their yards and villages. I note with interest yesterday that the water from my front trench is level to my yard. If I didn’t have a four-foot concrete drain I would have been flooded out in my yard. The water from the trench levelled in my yard because the trench is full of hard weeds that caused the water to remain stagnant. All the water from my yard and drains remained there for a long time. If the NDC was digging and maintaining this three feet deep trench to ten feet deep then all the water would have drained out instantly. But who cares the residents and tax payers have to suffer. Even NAREI was under threat because the water from their drains is at level with the trench because the trench needs some real digging about fifteen feet deep to cause some land movement with the water.

I think our administrators need to visit the Estate Cane fields to observe the high dam beds of the canefields that cannot be flooded and the depths of the canals that’s over 20 feet deep to contain the water cascading down the cane fields; the Dutch and British built a magnificent drainage system but because of bad management and incompetence we are now overtaken by basic rainfall. Over 30 years ago while growing up in Berbice, I have seen over one month of severe rains in Berbice and we were never flooded because drains, trenches and canals were maintained long before the May-June and November-December rains came. Many times those responsible can’t be found they either drunk or are just idling but still getting paid.

If we are going to free ourselves from flooding it will need a collective work of unity between residents and administrators. Citizens need to be charged for dumping garbage into trenches and drains which I have seen constantly. Citizens also need to form groups to also help to clean drains and trenches and those rich folks who own Hymacs and drag-lines should help. I seldom see the rich ever participating in ‘self-help’ in communities they always busy. Not very long ago I saw a bridge in Mon -Repos that lead to the school was a bit shaky. Hundreds of residents in that area will walk on that bridge to go to the market and school with their kids and family. Not long after I noticed the entire bridge broke down. When it was shaking residents could have easily repaired it and many carpenters and contractors were using that same bridge. But everyone put a blind eye to it though I asked them to join hands to repair the bridge. Residents always depend on the Government to do everything

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” By John F.Kennedy

It’s about time we rise up as a people and do something for our country collectively. May God grant us divine wisdom to see Guyana move forward.

Rev. Cecil Gideon

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