— ministers urge M&CC not to play politics when executing responsibilities

THE Ministers of Agriculture, Local Government and Public Works have said that a plan will be put in place to ensure the City’s drainage structures are managed effectively following a meeting with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and City Engineer of Georgetown on Wednesday.
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, speaking after the meeting, emphasised that government cannot assume those responsibilities without due process being followed.
He also said that the City’s drainage system is the responsibility of the Council and that government will be exploring all avenues to ensure that the Council is accountable and executes its responsibilities.

Minister Mustapha said that the meeting with the senior M&CC officials was to get firsthand answers for the flooding in several parts of Georgetown following government’s recent investments to improve the City’s drainage capacity.
“For the last two occasions that we experienced heavy rainfall in the City, we’ve had flash floods in some areas, while in other areas, we’ve had extensive flooding. Over the last month, the President and other ministers have been visiting a number of pumps and sluices in Georgetown to ensure these pieces of equipment that were provided to the City Council were being utilised. To our dismay, we’ve seen that the supervision of these structures left much to be desired. It is clear that the City Council is not supervising these sluice and pump operators,” Minister Mustapha said.

Minister Mustapha further stated that when questions were posed to the Mayor about the supervision of the structures, he responded and said that the technical officers attached to the M&CC were responsible for the monitoring and supervision of the structures.
That response, Minister Mustapha added, was unacceptable and not fitting of a leader since the management of the City’s drainage is ultimately the responsibility of the Mayor.

VERY STRANGE
“The Mayor basically said if the technical people cannot supervise then he cannot do much about that. I find that very strange because the responsibility stops at the Mayor’s desk and he has to ensure that the town and these critical structures are manned properly and that all systems are in place, because this is our Capital City, and, as a government, we’ve been making the resources available to the City Council in terms of getting the D&I system in action. During the latter part of 2020, we would’ve increased the drainage capacity of Georgetown by installing three additional pumps. Georgetown now has 12 pumps installed. We also have approximately 10 sluices,” Minister Mustapha said.
The subject minister went on to say that the M&CC is supposed to inform the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) if a pump or sluice becomes inoperable but recently, that has not been the case. The minister also said that, following an assessment of the pumps in Georgetown, technical officers from the NDIA discovered three pumps were down and that two of those pumps have been fixed after the NDIA intervened.
Minister Mustapha said that government was very concerned about the flooding in Georgetown and other regions of the country. He maintained that Georgetown would not have experienced that level of flooding had all the structures been operable.

UNFORTUNATE
Minister Mustapha also told media operatives that the initial plan was for the officials from the M&CC to engage the media following their meeting. He said it was unfortunate that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor opted not to engage the media which reflected poorly on the integrity of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
Meanwhile, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, said that since taking office, the PPP/C Government has been doing the “heavy lifting” in Georgetown. He added that government had hoped that the Georgetown M&CC would have engaged in the sustainable management of the facilities that were put in place. The minister also said, moving forward, disciplinary action should be taken against those found neglecting their responsibilities as it relates to effectively managing the City’s drainage structures.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, said that the City Council was failing.
“The management of the City, rather than being serious with the problem and call a spade a spade, is flouting the responsibility and throwing it back to the various ministries,” Minister Indar said. Minister Indar also said that government will continue to work in the best interest of the citizens of Georgetown.