Ramsammy announces new West Bank Demerara relief canal
THE Ministry of Agriculture will be working towards the establishment of an additional relief canal on the West Bank of Demerara. Minister with the portfolio, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy told the Guyana Chronicle, during an interview, that the additional relief canal would assist in mitigating the amount of flooding during rainy seasons.
During the last flood, several parts of West Bank Demerara were covered with water and, according to the minister; the problem came about with the creation of the new housing schemes which put more pressure on the drainage systems.
“The amount of water being dumped into these places by rain cannot be handled by the existing structures. There are several new problems that we have to address and the creation of a canal like the adjoining canal to Parfait Harmony and so on has created additional pressure on drainage,” he maintained.
However, Ramsammy assured that, unlike the last situation which saw residents being greatly affected by the flooding, every effort will be made to rectify this issue.
He said, in addition to the construction of the new canal, expansion works will also be done on existing drainage systems.
The minister disclosed, as well, that a pump station will be established in the surrounding area to drain excessive water that was accumulated on the land from continuous rainy spells.
“So we have to look at how the ‘A’ line is drained. Two things with the ‘A’ line is that it ends up in the Demerara River, by Versailles area, in a narrow area and, in the future, we have to expand it and we also need a pump at that station to help drain water,” he said.

Ramsammy said, already, a design for the relief canal has been sketched out and consultations were held to inform residents in the area about the works that will be undertaken.
“For Canal Number 2, we have already designed an additional canal but everybody is talking about the relief channel at Hope. We need an additional relief channel at Canal Number 2 and that additional channel has been designed and construction should begin soon,” he confirmed.
According to him:“We had a consultation to inform the people what we will be doing …what will happen is that there are 1,400 acres of land at the back of the Claybrick Road that has no drainage at this time and that will be assisted greatly by this new canal.”
Minster Ramsammy said that will not only drain the flooded areas but it will also be a canal to the Number 2 Canal main drain.
“It will help to drain those areas more effectively and drain at a higher level as those were two areas that were affected by the rains.”
This new intervention came about after Guyana experienced several continuous rainy spells in light of the La Nina phenomenon which has had severe impacts throughout the region.