THE regional administration and the Anna Regina Town Council should be held accountable for the flooding of the township, Anna Regina Multilateral School, businesses, and people’s properties and public buildings including the Anna Regina Police Station and the Guyana Revenue Authority compound. 

There should be no finger pointing and excuses, all the irrigation regulators along the main canal conservancy of the Tapakuma Irrigation scheme was left open by the drainage and irrigation overseer, discharging water into the housing areas when the flash flood came.
The only pump at Anna Regina was out of fuel and the koker operator was not on the job and could not be found to open the sluice door to avoid the flooding of the township. I was reliably informed by party comrades and officials of the regional administration of Region 2 that two drums of fuel were requested by the pump operator days before the flash flood and which were lying in the operation and maintenance compound awaiting transportation, a stone’s throw away from the pump.
When the residents saw that the water was coming into their yards and businesses, they went to the koker and the pump to see if they were in operation and found that they were not in operation as the water kept rising quickly. The pump operator and some fishermen then broke the sluice door to release the water from the land; at that point the residents then decided to roll the two drums of fuel manually from the D&I compound where it was lying for days to the pump some 100 yards away to the location.
This operation was not successful, because no one was there to issue the fuel until the next day. By that time the damage was already done in the entire township.
One week before the flash flood, there was heavy rainfall, our businesses were flooded causing damage to TV sets and other electrical appliances. I called the regional vice-chairman and told him that our businesses and yard in Cotton Field was flooded out, and he told me it was the Town Council’s fault.
I then called the Town Clerk and told her what was happening in our village. She told me that the council has one backhoe which has been out of order for years, because of the lack of a fuel pump and maintenance and there is nothing she nor the council could do to avoid the flooding in the township.
Editor, as I travelled through the township all the main trenches and internal drains leading to the kokers and the pump have been clogged up for decades without being cleaned or maintained to prevent flooding.
As I travelled farther outside of the township, the canals and trenches alongside the main public road are clogged up with antelope grass as high as a tree.
These trenches and internal drains have not been cleaned for decades, especially in the Marias’ Delight and New Road areas. The regional administration and the Town Council must stop the blame game and get on with the job they were elected to do by the people. We’re defined by what we pass on to the next generation.

MOHAMED KHAN