–to help hundreds affected by floods at Canal #1

IT has been a dull holiday season for residents of Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara (WCD) who have suffered major losses, and are still affected by flooding in the area due to torrential rainfall over the past week.
While some persons were able to dine with their families or even enjoy a family outing for Christmas, about 300 residents of Canal Number One faced a different luck, since most of their yards or houses were flooded.

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon along with a team from the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and the local Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) sought to eliminate some of the distress that the residents faced on Friday by distributing “care packages”, but some of residents said they have a long way to go until their lives can return to normalcy.
A livestock farmer, Tamesh Dat, told the Guyana Chronicle on Friday that the past few days have been hard for him, since he lost almost all his livestock because of the persistent flooding.

“Right now I stressed out, because is since 2005 we ain’t had something like this… I lost almost all my livestock,” lamented the farmer.
He was one of many people from the area who relayed that the flooding has not been so terrible since 2005, when almost the entire Guyana was devastated by flash flooding.
Dat said that aside from his livelihood being destroyed, the bottom flat of his two-storey house was also flooded with water just below his knees.
The water level was higher, said the farmer, as he took the Guyana Chronicle around his yard to point out some of his kitchen appliances and other household items that were destroyed by excessive flooding.

There were visible damages, and even those that could not be seen but were felt by his children who have been sick for the past few days. He believes that the sickness stems from the mosquitoes that are being bred by the stagnant water.
Another resident, Omela Persaud expressed similar sentiments, saying that they live in a subsistence farming community, so when the area is flooded, they lose all their produce.
She was among the many farmers who complained about the losses they incurred due to the high level of water.

Persaud said the area usually becomes flooded when there is persistent rainfall, but this time around, it was different because the canal had not been cleared for a while.
The woman was not the only person who claimed that the canal was not cleared in a while. Some of the other residents said that for almost seven months the canal had not been cleared, so water accumulated in the trenches and drains.
In addition to what she said, some of the residents suggested that the canal should be used for drainage, especially during the rainy season, as opposed to just being used for irrigation purposes.

The water level has, however, started to reduce, but Minister Harmon said it is not receding as fast as was anticipated, although all the pumps and sluices are operating efficiently.
“What you can see coming from the highway is that the canal is very clean, because we have provided the resources to the CDC and NDC to have the canals cleared and cleaned,” Minister Harmon said.
It is now up to the local authorities to keep the drains cleaned, so that the water can recede at a fast rate.

“We are working together to bring a solution to the problem,” Minister Harmon said, “and once the rain stops, we hope the situation will return to normalcy, since the residents of this area have been affect by flood water for over a week.”
Residents will be able to sanitise their houses once the situation returns to normalcy, since the care package included sanitation items and other useful products.

Minister Harmon said residents from Georgetown, especially those in the Albouystown area, are also faced with the same situation, so they intend to assist those residents as well.
Major parts of Georgetown were, however, not affected by flooding the minister said, and it’s all thanks to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.

And even if the city is under threat by heavy rainfall and inundation, he said there is an Emergency Management System that analyses information and decides where to assist, based on the severity of the situation.

Although not a lot of villages and communities are affected by high levels of water, the minister is urging citizens to take the necessary precaution and desist from throwing litter in the drains.