THE APNU-led Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has failed citizens during last Wednesday’s flooding in the city, and irate ratepayers should let the City Council report on its preparedness to deal with this rainy season, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon observed yesterday at his usual post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President in Georgetown.
Luncheon said, “The drainage system in the City needs to be fixed”, and the (M&CC) focus should be on drains, pumps and kokers, since solutions to the problems are obvious.
“Desilting (waterways and) access to canals, reserves and borders has been left by the APNU-led City Council for squatting and housing, (which) have made South Georgetown a virtual lake during the flood period. That system has to be fixed.
“Commitment by any incoming City Council to the residents of South Georgetown has to address the issue of desilting of those main canals that are prevented by what the age-long, APNU-PNC opposition-led council has permitted, orchestrated and encouraged over the decades,” Luncheon remarked.
He also said the Hydromet Office has failed citizens, in that warnings were not provided in a timely manner. “They didn’t have the information, so there was nothing to feed in to the early warning system. It could also be that the information was available but was not fed in. That could be a consequence of poor coordination.
“But suppose they never had the information? That’s what our fear is,” Luncheon disclosed.
“Flooding will always be with us. Our ability to discharge water from the land could, at any time, be exceeded by its accumulation. For authorities, for citizens, what matters are warnings, preparedness, and responses.”
Dr Luncheon said more and bigger and better pumps are needed to deal with situations that arise, like obtained on November 26 last.
“With desilting of our major canals, the improvement in gravity drainage can only be supported by fixing and maintaining the kokers that drain into the Demerara River. That is the minimum recipe to avoid a repeat of the dire circumstances that befell residents, business people and commuters since the flooding of November 26,” he said.
(By Telesha Ramnarine)
