– other at Riverview also non-functional
DEPUTY City Engineer, Kenson Boston, reported on Friday that of the city’s four pumps, two are down at the moment. In fact, the Princes Street pump has been down for the past two months.
At a City Hall press briefing where Boston was providing an update on the City Council’s preparedness for the upcoming rainy season, he said works have already started to clean a main canal that could prevent major flooding in the city.
However, while the Riverview pump should be back in operation within a week’s time, Boston said he is not sure when the Princes Street pump will be fixed. A private contractor is at the moment working on the Princes Street pump but cannot yet say when the works will be completed. This pump was missing a bearing box part, Boston said.
He told this publication that issues are being encountered at both locations because the canals that run alongside them cannot be efficiently cleaned. This is because persons are continuing to live on city reserves.
Meanwhile, Boston pointed out that the drainage channel along Avenue of the Republic is of prime importance because it helps to drain off water from the Bourda district, along with water from Lacytown and Church Street, which channel is in connection to Queenstown, Alberttown and all the way down to Water Street.
The Avenue of the Republic canal also affects the South Road and Croal Street channels which also encompass Brickdam, all the way back to Lodge. “This is a very important channel which has a large capacity to hold water,” Boston noted.
While he said City Hall does not envision any major flooding during the impending rainy season, he said the municipality remains concerned about the amount of garbage that residents continue to dump in the various canals.
Just last May, the City Council reported how two of its pumps developed an oil leak and were out of working order. The Riverview koker and the JP Santos koker were the ones down at that time.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had noted that the May/June rainy season had come and that residents depend heavily upon these two pumps.
Councillor Bishram Kuppen added that because there will always be rainfall, the City Council ought to look at acquiring more pumps. “They previously said the two pumps were out and here I am finding out again that they’re still down. But the planning here is not very good. They should have had backup pumps that you could hook up to a trailer so that if certain areas have problems, you move them there. But of the four critical pumps we have, two are not working.”
Kuppen had further said that he was not satisfied with the explanation offered by the City Engineer. “A lot of times we are getting excuses here and I don’t buy in to that. We all know there are money problems in the council but the council has to have priorities, and prevention of flooding is priority.”
