THE two pumps that have been non-functional for quite some time now are expected to be back in operation this week, City Engineer Colvern Venture has assured recently.
Furthermore, the Council is also hoping to resume works on the Avenue of the Republic canal this week, Venture disclosed.

“Our guys are working assiduously to have one of the pumps up and running by this week. We had some hiccups in terms of our finances in getting certain things done.
“The other pump… we had to outsource that project because the magnitude of the work will take us quite a while and the component that we had to get, we would have had to purchase it from the supplier; so we would have had to give the authorised dealer of that pump the component, so that they will look it after for us. So we are hoping that both will be up by this week; that will put us in a position to say that all our pumps are working in preparation for the rainy season,” Venture explained.

Works on the Avenue of the Republic canal had to be halted, but Venture said the council is hoping to resume such works by this week. “The Avenue of the Republic canal is a critical canal, taking into consideration the economic area it’s in. We had some issues in terms of finances to pay some of the contractor who are working with us on that project, but we are hoping to get those sorted out this week so that those works can continue.”

According to Venture, works are also being done in certain “problematic” areas in preparation for the rainy season. “We have works ongoing in the south of the city at the North Ruimveldt canal, which persons also call the Front Road canal. These works started last week and about 14 contractors are working on this canal,” Venture informed.
Drainage works are also ongoing in Wortmanville and in Charlestown.

Meanwhile, Deputy City Engineer Kenson Boston reported last month 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. The other one down is the pump at Riverview.
He had also said 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.

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 that 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 back-up 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.”