-Foreign Affairs Minister leads foreign envoys to assess flood situation at Mahaicony

AS government works to reduce the effects of flooding in communities along the coast of Mahaicony, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Karen Cummings believes that more can be done with the intervention of the diplomatic community.

Minister Cummings led a team of diplomats to the flood-affected communities, where they were given a first-hand look at how residents were affected by flooding caused by above-normal high tides and a breach in the sea defence from Dantzig to Fairfield. Communities which were affected included Dantzig, Columbia, Glazier’s Lust, Fairfield, High Dam, Rebecca’s Lust and Planters’ Hall.

Indian High Commissioner, Dr. K. J. Srinivasa; Russian Ambassador to Guyana, Alexander Kurmaz; Organisation of American States Country Representative, Jean Ricot Dormeus; Anthony Mwaniki Muchiri, High Commissioner of the Republic of Kenya to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana were among the diplomats present.

“With me I have a team from different parts of the world– Russia, Mexico, India, Kenya, China and so on…we are here to assess the situation and see the impact of the flood on the communities,” Dr Cummings said, while talking to a resident of Planters’ Hall– one of the flood-affected communities– during the visit. The visit was coordinated by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), on Friday.

The minister assured residents that the ministry will work along with the diplomats to bring relief, not just in the short term, but also the long term. She said government is deeply concerned about providing a permanent solution to the issue of flooding.
“As such, we would like to encourage a multi-stakeholder approach to effecting meaningful solutions to residents who are affected,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said, while adding that strategic planning is needed to address the adverse effects of flooding.

The Foreign Affairs Minister believes that the adverse effects of flooding go far beyond infrastructural damage, because it also poses public health risks.
In that regard, she said it is imperative for government to maintain proper sea defence infrastructure and implement proper drainage mechanisms. This is something which the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) was evidently trying to implement in the Mahaicony area.

NDIA representative Dave Hicks, who briefed the diplomats about ongoing work in the area, said the authority is upgrading about 3km of the sea-defence structure.
Due to the severity of the flooding caused by the breach, the NDIA, in the interest of time, started constructing a rock-face protection – a temporary structure.

“The breach is about 100 metres… and so far we have completed about 1,000 metres of sea defence of the 2,800 metres to be completed… the rains, however, saturated the embankment and did not allow us to reach the breach, but we hope that by mid-December we would complete it,” said Hicks.
Minister Cummings, however questioned the NDIA representative about a long-term solution, to which he replied that the authority will soon construct a full rip-rap to the full elevation.

In the interim, a secondary structure (a dam) was built to isolate the breach and ensure that water does not flow through to the villages. The dam is not yet at full height, but when completed, it will be 62 GD (above Georgetown Data). As a temporary solution, the NDIA also installed three pumps in the area.

Although a lot is being done to ensure that there is no recurrence of the disaster, Captain Salim October of the CDC said quite a few residents were affected.
October said approximately 400 households and about 2,300 individuals were affected by flooding. In a breakdown of information on the impact of the disaster, the captain said 20 livestock farmers and about 65 cash crop farmers were affected.

“There was a high per capita impact in that area (Region Five) and that is what makes our response much more important as opposed to many other communities across the coastline that would have been impacted,” said October. He added that in addition to Region Five, Regions Two, Three, Four and Six were also affected to some extent.
He said while the population in Region Five is not too large, the per capita impact would have been much higher. October said the effects of the flooding in that area were severe due to lack of maintenance of structures and the unresponsiveness of residents to early warnings.

The CDC, as such, advised residents to build empolderment and relocate their livestock so as to mitigate the effects if another disaster was to occur.
Director-General of the CDC Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig encouraged residents to heed the advice of the CDC in order to prevent a recurrence.

“We have been observing the effects of the situation and I assure you that the CDC will be working with broader stakeholders for long-term solutions,” said Craig.