–Agri. Minister calls on M&CC to improve monitoring efforts

AFTER a broken koker door led to the flooding of approximately 250 households in Werk-en-Rust on Sunday morning, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha has called on the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to ensure that there is stricter monitoring of the drainage and irrigation structures in the capital.

The early-morning flooding, which resulted from the damaged koker door, occurred during a high tide; it was repaired shortly after the tide receded, and the affected households were able to begin cleaning. According to a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture, Minister Mustapha emphasised that the operation of the city’s drainage and irrigation structures that drain water into the Demerara River are the primary responsibility of the City Council. In the release, the minister also lamented what appeared to be a lack of effective management at the sluice, which resulted in flooding of the area.

“The subject minister said that it was unacceptable that persons were subject to this amount of discomfort on a national holiday, and called on the M&CC to enforce stricter penalties on persons who are found to be negligent in their responsibility of opening and closing City sluices in a timely manner,” the release stated.

According to the release, sometime between 21:00 hrs on Saturday and 04:00 hrs on Sunday, the sluice operator was supposed to close the sluice gate, but it appears as though that did not happen. When the tide began to rise, and water started to come through the opened sluice gate, the communities were flooded. The operator and engineers from the M&CC attempted to close the door, but their efforts were in vain.

“After speaking with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Board Chairman, I instructed that the NDIA lend support to the City Council to monitor this structure. So, during the next scheduled closure of the sluice door, our engineer was on site to monitor and give assistance to M&CC personnel,” Minister Mustapha was also quoted as saying in the release.

Once the door was closed, the Princes Street pump was used to start draining water from these areas, which ultimately resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of flood water from the area. A statement issued by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) noted that in the Charlestown area, the roads were inundated with about eight inches of water, while as much as 12 inches of water were on those in Werk-en-Rust. The Commission is in the process of assessing the damage the situation would have caused the many businesses and households in the affected areas.