RELIEF supplies, which include 216 flood hampers, were dispatched from Georgetown, on Monday, for flood-affected miners in Region Seven, the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) has reported.

The hampers include food, cleaning and medical packages, personal hygiene kits and shelter items such as mosquito nets, a release said.

The packages were loaded at the National Gymnasium, which is being used by the CDC as its packing facility. From Georgetown, the packages were then transported to the Parika Stelling, to be loaded on to a vessel destined for Bartica, in Region Seven.

From Bartica, it would then be transported inland to the affected communities. Region Seven is among five administrative regions in Guyana which have been most severely affected by Guyana’s ongoing flooding situation.

Mining is also one sector that has been severely impacted by the national disaster. The hampers are part of ongoing efforts by the CDC, the government and other organisations to bring relief to all of the different sectors and areas being affected by the flooding.

Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat, will be leading the mission to the region, to get a first-hand look at the situation facing the miners.

“Reaching out to miners in this difficult period is important to us, especially with the miners in the Middle Mazaruni where the water is very high and miners have basically shut down their operations and many are trapped there, and equipment are underwater too,” the minister said.

“The government will also look at possible ways of assisting the sector during the recovery period,” he noted.

The deployment of the relief supplies comes just days before the commencement of the “Detailed Damage Sector Assessment” (DDSA) of Guyana’s flooding situation, where mining is one of seven key areas which will be assessed.

The DDSA, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, is being coordinated by a team from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).