–calling on authorities to render assistance
RESIDENTS of Block 8 Tuschen,East Bank Essequibo, are accusing their Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) of neglect, as they helplessly battle rising floodwaters.
With the turbid waters steadily rising in some yards in Phase One in the area, and the danger of it creeping into many a bottom flats, some residents are calling for emergency help, given that the May-June rains are just around the corner.
At the invitation of one resident, the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday paid the area a visit, and saw first-hand why there is so much anxiety, as while some yards still seem relatively safe, the majority are at risk of being severely inundated.
It’s the story of his life, says Councillor for the district, Andrew Ewart, who told the Guyana Chronicle that he knows no peace once the rainy season approaches, since he’s beset by complaint after complaint. He said some residents even call him at home pleading for help, but his hands are tied. He said he’s raised the issue several times at NDC meetings and other forums but to no avail.
“The flooding is really because we don’t have proper infrastructure and drainage. I’ve been raising it at many forums, but none pays me any mind,” Ewart said.
He said just before the May-June rains began last year, two mini-excavators were sent by the NDC to address the drainage situation in the area, but for some unexplained reason, both machines were deployed to another area before the work was done.
He is of the opinion that had the work been completed, the area would not have been in the situation it is in now.
He said that as far as he knows, the NDC is responsible for the ‘Uitvlugt-Tuschen’ district, but from all indications, Block 8 is not a part of the equation.
LONG NEGLECTED
“This particular scheme has been neglected, as far as I am concerned, because when you raise certain issues, it just keeps being swept under the carpet and leave there as that,” he said.
“I do newspapers around the scheme, and every resident I pass, is ‘Councillor, watch wuh going on.’”
He said he did see one of the excavators in the area lately, but the work it was doing was minor, and does not adequately address the flooding situation.
“This is the second time this machine coming in this scheme, and the residents cannot benefit from it,” Ewart said. “If they do the trenches we wouldn’t get this.”
Faith Angel, who resides in the area, is afraid of a recurrence of what has been happening at her home for a while now. She said she has constantly sought help from the NDC but to no avail. Someone was even rude to her when she tried calling the office once last year.
At the time, she said, the female who answered the phone informed her that the NDC Chairman was busy, so she opted to leave him a message. She said when she told the person at the other end of the line that her home was flooded and she was calling to see if there is anything the NDC could do to help, the woman promptly told her that the NDC Chairman’s home was also under water.
Angel said she is especially concerned about her children coming into contact with the putrid waters right within their home.
“Since December we getting a problem with the water level in the scheme here,” Angel said in frustration.
WATER EVERYWHERE
“I had water all in the shop; all in the house. We’ve been talking to the NDC to see if they could get the drains in this area cleared, and we’re not making any progress with them so far; they just keep promising,” she added.
The woman said she even tried contacting the Community Development Committee (CDC) within the Ministry of Communities last year, and someone there informed her that they would communicate with the NDC Chairman to rectify the situation.
“That was in December,” she said, “a little before Christmas! But to date, nothing! Right through December month the rain fall. Every time the rain fall, water come up; come in the place. As you can see now, the water is raising again and nobody doing anything about clearing the drains.
“This water only raise this level since the rain start fall about three days ago, and is the May-June rainy season. If these people clean these drains, we gon get a relief from this water.”
She said she had lost a lot in the past because of the floods, and is pleading now with relevant authorities to save her from losing again.
“Last year July I had 11 inches of water in my house; and when the water come up it damage everything; it wet up yuh chair, everything,” the businesswoman said.
“When we spoke to the NDC, they say Housing did not hand over the scheme as yet. So we would glad fuh whosoever is in charge of the scheme to clear the drainage so that the water could flow freely.”
Another resident, one Dacia Rodney said she and a few other residents have cleaned their own drains, but that is not enough to keep the waters off. She explained, too, that apart from the health risks the floodwaters pose, dangerous animals are often spotted close to their homes.
“I am living in Tuschen for the past 15 years,” Rodney said, “and this flooding always there.
“Soon as the rain fall it’s that; and if people clean the drain as I and some other people do, I think we will get better results when the rain fall. We wouldn’t get all these flooding.
“All like in the evening, coming on to like seven o’clock, you can’t walk the road and say that you gonna walk bold. No! Is alligators and all sort of stuff out here.
“But thank God, we would most likely always see them before it too late.”
THE STENCH
Meanwhile, Olata Persaud said when the water settles for a while during flooding, there is a stench emanating and it disturbs her family.
“The water ain’t got nowhere fuh drain out, and whenever the water come up, yuh would smell it… In the trench itself, you would smell it. I can’t open the front door or the window; how the wind blow the smell going in,” Persaud explained.
She has four children, the youngest being three years old. The woman also complained of the presence of Africanised bees at an abandoned house in a yard nearby, which would swarm her premises and drive fear in her family.
“I gat bees! At the back of the yard it gat ah empty lot, and then they gat a next yard with a old house,” Persaud said, adding:
“In the night is like five and six bees I killing in the house; I just glad fuh somebody come and get it cleaned. It gat a small house, but I don’t know is who own it because I never see anybody went deh.”
The residents also complained that caimans live near the Tuschen Primary School, rendering pupils there in danger.
Efforts to contact the Chairman of the NDC proved futile.
