CHAIRMAN of Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), Mr. Alli Baksh has announced that several mobile pumps are in operation at the northern end of the Essequibo Coast to drain a high build-up of rain water in farming and residential areas. They have been placed at Anna Regina, Charity, Cozier, Perth, Lima and Andrews, he told the Guyana Chronicle, adding that the regional administration is also monitoring the levels in all the conservancies and main canals on a 24-hour basis.
Baksh said special attention is also being paid to the rice crop, 80 per cent of which is ready for harvesting, but is being delayed because access dams with clay surfaces are in very bad condition due to the weather.
The Chairman, who visited several areas, including Richmond, Affiance and La Belle Alliance, to look at flooding, said the most vulnerable are between Better Hope, in the north and Golden Fleece, in the south.
Baksh, who went there, too, said several Pomeroon farms are flooded. There are high water levels at Hackney and Aberdeen in Lower Pomeroon and, in upper Pomeroon at Jacklow, Siriki and Warapana.
He said the water on farms recedes when the tide in the Pomeroon River falls, but he appealed to residents along the Essequibo Coast not to dump plastic bottles and other garbage in waterways and obstruct drainage. (Rajendra Prabhulall)