– The resilient flood-affected ‘David James’

FOR all of his years living in David James Scheme, Yaugeshwar Paul had never seen water come up so high in the community. Like many other farmers, he’s had to deal with flooding in the past, but last year’s occurrence was unprecedented; the farmers were under water all year round!

The father of three, like many others, lost everything in the flood that had worked so hard to cultivate. He had pear and orange trees, along with plantain, cassava, and other crops. Nothing survived.

“Every single thing done, so we have to go all over again; all over again,” he lamented when Pepperpot Magazine paid him a visit at home. He was quite happy for the visitors because he said no one goes to check on the farmers in the community, located roughly three miles in from Charity.

He’s now hoping that the authorities will see the plight of the farmers there and render whatever assistance they can in the form of farming tools, fertilizers, spraying cans, or whatever may be required to start the process all over again.

“Three waters hit us for last year and we lost all of our crops. That was the highest water I see since I living here. We had flooding before, but nothing like this. As soon as the land start to drain and we start to prepare to plant again, the water come back,” Paul recalled.

Starting over
After the flood, Paul and other farmers in the area started to bring produce from the village to Georgetown. This helped significantly to “brace” them financially as they all hoped for normalcy to return. “We have to do other work to survive. We have our own canter to take the load to town and that’s what been bracing us a little.”

The business also helped out farmers in the area who could sell their produce to Paul. In the meantime, the authorities did some drainage work in the community to aid the farmers. They also built higher dams.

But Paul and the rest of the farmers would not settle just for the business of bringing produce to town; they would prefer to get right back to farming. “This is we living and this we depend on.

We have no choice but to start over again, hoping that we can get some help somewhere through the line; it’s either planting material or something else that they can help with.”

The task of starting all over again to plant is daunting. It requires money. And money for many of the farmers at the moment is difficult to come by. “It will take quite a while to get back. A simple crop would take about three months to come by. Cassava, you have to wait for nine months, or plantain, a whole year before you get a bunch. It’s not something easy; it’s a hard case for a farmer just roll on back and go again,” Paul expressed.

The government has provided some amount of relief to the farmers, but Paul is hopeful that more will be done for them.

He said he is too attached to the community to leave, even though many others have opted to move for work and better living conditions. “We accustom to life here, so it’s hard to leave this place. We know everything about it and we live here happy[sic], even though we going through all this trouble. Thank god for that up to now.”

He believes in remaining positive through the difficulties. “You have to go with the flow; you can’t give up. Some people might get frustrated and give up but you can’t. You have to try again. You have to keep going all the time. It could be that it (flooding) may not come back for a good couple of years again and you can be able to achieve something in the meantime,” Paul advised.

Back in his school days, Paul would walk to school in Charity via a little track that his family had to maintain; there were no roads. He is hoping that the authorities will look into providing a better road to help make life easier for the farmers.