…after flooding threatens widespread erosion
Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud yesterday made an on the spot decision to speed up the relief of hardships caused by excessive flooding in the Wismar area when he ordered that drainage and irrigation work be undertaken instantly. “It’s part of our programme for this year, but let’s bring it forward as an emergency,”he said.
Work should begin this morning at the Wanakboo Creek, and with drains starting from the back of the Community Centre in Victory Valley, going west from coker fence to where the three tributaries meet.
Several areas in Linden and its environs were flooded after heavy rain yesterday.
This caused severe problems in several communities, as far as the Coomacka Mines, some seven miles south of Linden.
In central Mackenzie, there was flooding in Greenheart Street and Dageeraad Avenue. The erosion in the sandy areas at Wismar was aggravated by the heavy downpour.
Minister Persaud rushed to Linden ahead of the presidential team which is expected to visit Linden today.
Minister Persaud was accompanied on his inspection by Lionel Wordsworth and other officials from his ministry, and Regional Chairman of Region 10, Mortimer Mingo, along with residents from the Wismar area.
Minister Persaud instructed that the work start right away and it will be part of the maintenance programme in the community.
He said that there is need to get the community’s drainage and irrigation people out to assist in the work. He said that the community development committee of the area should be engaged also, as government is spending some $15M on the work there, and it must start right away.
He said, “What I find happening now is that people are deliberately waiting for things to build up, create a problem, then it becomes another story. We have to do ongoing maintenance because you don’t have to wait until you get a contract to clear, you clear even as we work out the annual programme.”
One resident of the Silvercity area, Philip Bynoe, told Minister Persaud that for those groups working in the various communities, “the scope of works needs to be clear, the supervisors need to be clear, to be told what is their jobs.”
Regional Chairman Mingo remarked that an engineering study of  Blueberry Hill, Wismar hill, and Buckhill should be commissioned.
Mingo said this was necessary to see how the problem could be tackled to find a solution once and for all. from an engineeing perspective.
Minister Persaud agreed.
“This year we will spend about S60M more in major capital work. But originally Linden was not part of our D &I programme; and we brought in Linden, because you would realize that the area has got difficulties. But we will need to develop some kind of master engineer plan to deal with these conditions and the layout of this area.”
Persaud said that he will get Minister of Works Roberson Benn to come to the affected areas, particularly Silvercity, to see what his engineers could advise on the way forward with the erosion in the area.
He said, “This visit is just to see what additional support we can give in this regard, because of the typography and the layout in this area it is very susceptible to erosion, especially during heavy rainfall, where a lot of the top soil, the sands come down and clog the drains, and some of the existing drains system have not been working for 20 to 30 years” Saying he was concerned about how the work is done within the communities, Minister Persaud felt that there was need for a different approach to what has beeen going on.
He offered that “a lot of people think this is a money-making enterprise.”
It isn’t, he said.” We had to move money from other areas, the Regional Chairman sits on the NDIA board and he will tell you we had to move it from agriculture area to bring it here to encourage farming here. “And once you do not have farming, we have residential issues. We want to see how we can assist the people of Wismar/Linden in terms of dealing with this. Your problem is unique in terms of ersosion, a lot of erosion. That is why I came myself to see what else we can do immediately.”