OVER the last few months, one of the major consumer concerns has been the flooding of the City of Georgetown and the farmlands over the Coastal Regions. These disastrous floods have been occurring annually and the media and leaders of public opinion have, in one way or another, been saying that the remedy lies in expending a great deal of scarcely available funds on pumps and other costly infrastructure.

Older folk remember when Georgetown and most of the Coast rarely ever flooded despite torrential rains. The drainage system bequeathed by the Dutch served Guyana very well until it began to be neglected over many years and the neglect has had a direct relationship to the flooding.

Most who speak about flooding never mention the suffering and loss communities and individuals suffer: House foundations become weakened or are destroyed; homes are flooded, sometimes for days, destroying furniture and equipment and valuable and unique books and personal records; the roads deteriorate; gardens are destroyed and today, there are no well-kept gardens in Georgetown and its environs. The poor, the old and the sick suffer terribly since they are unable to move about or to cook or to buy food and often go hungry. And the floods bring diseases and ailments which particularly affect these vulnerable groups.

From time to time over the last several years, there have been clean-up campaigns, especially in Georgetown, and at present, there is an on-going one. Many of the City’s canals have been desilted but the flooding still persists because the smaller feeder drains are still silted up and the culverts are all damaged or choked. These smaller drains have to be cleaned if any relief is to be brought to citizens.

Over the years, the Guyana Consumers Association has been advocating the following prescriptions which cost very little money:-
(1) The persons who man the kokers should always be on duty. Of recent times, the City has been seriously flooded because of the negligence of koker attendants.
(2) The koker outfalls must be methodically and periodically dredged.
(3) When the canals and drains are desilted, paal-offs of various kinds could be used to prevent slippage. Waste slabs from the sawmills could be used to provide cheap paals and trees should be planted along the banks of the cleaned drains and canals so that the roots could compact the soils.
(4) The mud dug out from the canals could be used to build up the road shoulders. Many roads have no shoulders resulting in their being broken up from the sides. Upper Brickdam is an example of this.
(5) The mud could also be used to build up the low street parapets to prevent the drains overflowing to the roads.
(6) Either ban the imports of styrofoam containers and plastic bags or have them recycled. Over the years, we depended on private industry establishing such recycling plants and several false starts were made. Government will have to initiate such plant or plants.
(7) Ban the imports of used motor vehicle tyres. These tyres proliferate everywhere and are disposed of by throwing them into the drains and canals, exacerbating drainage problems.
(8) Consistently educate the public as to why and how to play their part in keeping the drainage system functional. Such education has to begin from the primary school level.
(9) A strict regime of maintenance must be enforced to preserve the gains made. The Ministry responsible for Local Government could have the responsibility for such enforcement.

The above prescriptions do not require much money. They require employees doing their duty, human effort and commitment, and the will, all of which are available.
By Pat Dial