…Hydraulic oil for pumps costing M&CC

THE Princes Street pump has not yet been fixed as the City Engineer’s Department continues to wait on the acquisition of hydraulic oil. It has been out of operation for close to five months now.

The problem is, though, according to City Engineer Colvern Venture, the oil can cost the City Council as much as $3M.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle recently at City Hall, Venture noted that while the major aspects of the Princes Street pump has been fixed, additional items for it are still being awaited.

“We’re hoping to get it sorted out during the course of this week. The hydraulic oil is a very expensive product, costing the council about two to three million dollars to acquire. We would have fixed the major damages that occurred, but we are now in the process of procuring the oil.”

According to Venture, another pump, the one at Lamaha Street, has also developed some oil leakage issues.

“Whenever we have debris stuck in the pump foot, it damages the seal. And as long as the oil is leaked, we can’t use it back because it is contaminated with water. So whenever we have impediments in the pump foot, we have to replace the oil. Plastic bags for one are very challenging to us once they get into the pump foot,” Venture explained.

Deputy City Engineer Kenson Boston had told the media recently that issues are encountered at some of the pump locations because the canals that run alongside them cannot be efficiently cleaned. This is because persons are continuing to live on city reserves.

Boston said the municipality remains concerned about the amount of garbage that residents continue to dump into the various canals.

Councillor Bishram Kuppen had opined that because there will always be rainfall; the City Council ought to look at acquiring more pumps. “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.”

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.”