-Kwakwani Waterfront residents urged to relocate
-cycle of flooding expected to worsen

IN May, the regional authorities of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) had declared the community of Kwakwani to be in a “severe state” since water levels had risen above 15 feet, completely covering several homes.

Yearly, when the May/June rainy season comes, residents would brace themselves for heavy torrential rainfalls and light flooding.

This year was no different as many had prepared for the “norm” that they had grown accustomed to. However, the rainy season brought more than what residents had bargained for.

Cort Simeon, the Vice-Chairman of the Kwakwani Neighbourhood Democratic Council (KNDC) disclosed that residents would have experienced a similar ordeal with severe flooding at the Kwakwani Water Front some ten years ago and sometime in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the water level has never risen as high as it did this year.

“It’s about 10 years ago, Kwakwani would have had severe flooding but not to this extent. We would have never ever in history had this before and I born and grow in Kwakwani,” he told the Guyana Chronicle during a telephone interview.

He said the waterfront area which is separated from the Berbice River by a long stretch of road and a sandbank along with another area called Lamp Island are currently the most severely affected in the community.

Simeon explained that residents would usually brace themselves for torrential rainfall and high tide, but what they had not prepared themselves for, was high water levels.

“It’s a norm every May/June to have flood come up a little bit and we brace ourselves for that two months or some, and we would cope but now things are getting out of hand for us.”

Over the past few months, there has been a significant increase in the water level of the river, which, coupled with heavy torrential rainfall, has left the community inundated since late April.

In the past, Simeon said, “We would have never reached the stage where the entire waterfront had to be out of electricity as a result of the flooding and presently we are out of electricity.”

The Guyana Chronicle had recently spoken to waterfront resident, Kenrick Samuels, who was in disbelief and was hurriedly packing his valuables to move to higher ground.

Samuels, who owns and operates a welding shop in the area, had related that the water in the area rose quickly, and within the blink of an eye, his workshop was completely inundated.

In a follow-up interview on Tuesday, Samuels said that watching the water level in his hometown quickly rise was “unbelievable”.

The man said he has been living in the community all of his life, and while he had experienced flooding before, it was never this severe.

SEASONAL FLOODING

To trace the history of seasonal flooding in the Region 10 community, the Guyana Chronicle spoke to the former Regional Chairman, Mortimer Mingo, who was the then acting regional chairman some ten years ago when severe flooding had hit the community.

Mingo, in a candid interview, said that severe flooding in Kwakwani is a phenomenon that tends to occur every ten years or so during the rainy season or whenever there is above-normal rainfall.

“There is what I want to call a cycle of flooding that takes place primarily in the Kwakwani Waterfront area. What happens is whenever there is persistent rainfall…the rain falls in the upper regions of the Berbice River so the water keeps rushing down there and it normally overflows the banks of the river in the vicinity of Lamp Island and also the waterfront area,” Mingo explained.

He noted that in 2006 just after a wave of severe flooding, the then government had identified an area in Kwakwani to be transformed into a housing scheme to facilitate the relocation of residents from the waterfront area. However, only a few residents would have opted to relocate to higher grounds.

According to Mingo, majority of the residents were reluctant to relocate.

“There was a new housing scheme which was developed and most of those persons were offered house lots to relocate. However, there was a high level of reluctance by those persons to relocate,” he said lamenting that, “most of them preferred to ride the flooding out.”

Previously, he said the water would have subsided within a week or two and residents would have returned to their normal lives.

He added that the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) would respond to the needs of residents during and after the floods.

‘IT’S TIME TO RELOCATE’

Mingo explained to this publication that, in the past, residents would just clean-up and go back to normal after the floodwaters would have receded.

He insisted that given the recurring floods, residents, particularly those living along the waterfront should take climate change and global warming into consideration and relocate.

“What could be done is the only thing that was referred to those people during my time, which was 20 years ago, is have those persons relocated …but as I said there is a reluctance of them to relocate,” he adding: “Once the water has subsided, life goes back to normal and that’s it.”

Mingo said given the severity of the flooding this time around, it is safe to say that the cycle will continue and severe flooding can be expected in the future.

“I’m certain that once this water subsides, within another three years or so, it is going to come back again. It’s a normal phenomenon. It’s nothing new, but what is new, is the level of the water would have risen,” he said.

According to the current Regional Chairman, Deron Adams, the community has a population of about 3,000 people.

With dozens of homes at the waterfront area inundated, shelters were set up at the Kwakwani Primary and Secondary schools which are located more inland and on higher ground.

These shelters are housing those flood-affected residents who are unable to stay with their relatives or friends.

Up to press time on Tuesday, close to 100 persons were being housed at those shelters.