Dear Editor
I SAW in all the print media Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, lecturing the two-year-old coalition government to bring immediate measures and relief to those who were affected by the flood lately in Georgetown and around the country and minimise damage and losses to property, livestock and agricultural crops. He is behaving as though there were no floods during his tenure and the PPP’s 23 years in government. He should realise that this new government made miraculous achievements within its short time in the face of the reality of inheriting a wrecked economy.As soon as the coalition assumed office, it started to remove and clear tonnes of garbage which had piled up under the previous administration. It also cleared canals and trenches which were clogged up for decades. Its commitment to principles and devotion to the working people and businesses helped it to survive two floods since 2015 soon after assuming office, which could have been more disastrous to property, livestock and agricultural crops as had happened in the 2005 flooding under Jagdeo’s tenure. All the villages and rice-cultivation areas that he had mentioned in Region Two and other parts of the country had been flooded for the past 23 years.

Farmers lost cash crops, rice crops, livestock, properties were damaged and businesses lost millions of dollars in stocks without any compensation from his government. The Jagdeo administration never improved the systems after the 2005 flood, after which floodwaters annually deposited sediments, slowly building up drift mud along the sea coast which were never removed. The mouth of the Pomeroon River and other parts of the country were silted up, preventing the water from receding in a timely manner.
Thus, the water kept piling up on the land causing floods. Following the ‘great flood’ of 2005,the government never built any levee system and jetties to send the sediment into the deep waters of the Atlantic to help prevent floods. Of course, every practical government knows that good drainage is paramount to the survival of humans, crops and livestock and also businesses. Along the coast there were magnificent drainage canals 50 feet wide; during the Dutch occupation, these ran straight from the main conservancy canal straight out to the very sea margin. At the end of them were caisson sluices which, in case of wash, may be removed without trouble. All these were destroyed and in front of these sluices were thrown down crescents of blocks of stone rip-rap to comb the flooding; these too have disappeared.
Hampton Court estate, which is owned by Sattie Ramnauth, went through unspeakable times with flooding for decades because of failure to correct some minor drainage and irrigation problems by the past administration. The mayor turned a blind eye to her complaints that all the residents had blocked up in front of their entrance drainage trench without placing any kokers which caused her estate, playground and airstrip to be under water every time it rained heavily . According to her, the mayor always made excuses that the backhoe and drain digger were out of order and there was no long-boom hymac available in the region to handle the canals and trenches. She then sought the help of Mr Rupert Hopkinson, REO, and was able to get help to clear the drainage canals which had been clogged up for years.
During the Tapakuma Irrigation Scheme Phase Two project under the Burnham and Hoyte governments, several large caterpillar pumps were placed at Anna Regina, Lima, Hampton Court and Somerset and Berks by the British contracting firm Reed and Mallik to alleviate flooding. When the PPP took office in 1992,all these big pumps were removed from the region and replaced with smaller ones which do not have the capacity to reduce flooding. Many sea defence kokers which were built by the Dutch and British were condemned; these sluices have more capacity flow to discharge water into the sea during outfall tide. Our country will continue to spend heavily on drainage, sea defence and irrigation because of the mistakes in shutting down the sea defence sluices. The scheme was so designed within the township of Anna Regina to Walton Hall that almost every village had a sluice to take care of the excessive overtopping water release from the main conservancy canal.
Regards
Mohamed Khan