Heavy overnight rain left several areas of the city flooded yesterday, in what may be an ominous sign of what is to come. It has been predicted that the rainfall during this month and in January will be above average.
Workers from the Ministry of Transport and Hydraulics clearing a drain along the lower East Coast Demerara Highway yesterday.
Stabroek News visited different parts of the city — South Ruimveldt, Tucville, Campbellville, and areas around central Georgetown — and along the East Coast Demerara and found them flooded but by mid -morning water in several of these areas had begun to recede.
During the morning, Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams and other senior officials of City Hall were making checks of the various pumps at the drainage stations in the city and along the East Coast. All were reportedly in operation.
Benn told this newspaper that he was satisfied with the response to the situation and was happy that water in some areas had been quickly drained off. He said that considering the heavy rainfall, which he estimated to be about 3 ½ inches, the response was good. He said that to have 3 ½ inches of rainfall in such a short space of time was a lot and added there was only so much that could be done given the resources available.
When Stabroek News spoke to the minister, he was supervising a group of workers from his ministry who were clearing a drain alongside the lower East Coast Demerara Highway. He told this newspaper that the constant dumping of refuse into the canals remained a serious problem within the city. He said the drainage alongside the Rupert Craig highway had become problematic particularly with the recent Sunday night seawall limes, which had caused a serious increase in littering in the area. He explained that all it took was a few bags or bottles in addition to hanging grass for these drains to be clogged.
The minister also said that in areas South of Georgetown, flooding would continue to be a problem because residents had taken to planting on some of the reserves, which hampered drainage.
Meanwhile over at the Liliendaal station, all three pumps were in operation.
Over at the GuySuCo controlled Le Ressouvenir drainage pump, the attendants told this newspaper that while the pumps were working, garbage in the system was hampering their effectiveness. This newspaper was shown a heap of garbage which had been dug from nearby canals recently.
Don’t forget..$700 million they set aside for this rainy season….lets see how it will be spent!
Obviously it is not being spent to create proper drainage; people will continue to have their belongs floating in their homes and the virus infections will continue. When i think of the amount being given to Guyana, I expect the see the conditions improve, instead the government hotshots continue to build their mansions and to hell with simple folks whose matress is floating in a bottom flat — the worse part is she has children there with her. Oh beautiful guyana, where is your improvement i keep reading about? somehow i just don’t see it.
how it will be spent:
- transportation & fuel
- food for workers
- overtime pay
- timber & materials
- contractor fees
and along de way some will be lost to ‘accounting & book-keeping’ friction in de pipeline
i have notice all these ads on the seawall, are they paying for these spaces, if so why not used that money to clean these drainage on a weekly basis.
LET THE JAIL MEN CLEAN THE DAM PLACE, THEY AINT DOING NOTHING IN DEH BUT SLEEPING AND DEFECATING AND WATCHING TV ALL DAY!!1
got enough criminals in the lock up…shacle dem and put dem to wok…
If you shackle dem how dey gun hold the spade, fork, shovel and clean the canal properly? And if you unshackle dem, dey gun fly away. Come on, be more practical.
What the MCC doing about this,they should have thing in place already to avoid this problem,every year is the same problem and no solution in place.What’s wrong with the leadership in guyana.
Come on MCC protect our beautful capital city.when we visit georgetown we don’t want to be walking in knee high water.
SandhurstFirst – Be careful what you wish for! You do not want to look out your window and see seven prisoners cleaning the canal outside you house. It would get your attention very quickly.
i wish for 1 billion dollars and peace in the world……
yep and i was planning a trip for the holiday – this could lead into a water festival
I don’t see the any mention of the “Lord” Mayor Hamilton Green involved in any inspection, visit or anything to ensure the city is not flooded, I wonder why, but…what’s new? This goes to show where our tax payers monies are wasted paying these incompetent “Mayors”.
Everybody saying Robert Corbin should step down, I say THE “LORD” MAYOR IS THE ONE WHO SHOULD STEP DOWN AND STAY OUT. It’s better we have no “Mayor” than an incompetent uninterested Civil Servant.
The flooding in the City will NEVER stop, not until the authorities (the Government, Joint Services and Public Utilities, NOT the Mayor, even though its his portfolio) ensure the removal of the SQUATTERS on East/West Ruimveldt Front Road, Mandela Avenue, Yarrow Dam, etc. so we can have the Laing Avenue Front Rd. and Barbie Trenches cleaned. With that the entire Ruimveldts, form South, North, East, North East, allover, even Sophia will drain thus alleviating 90% of the City’s flooding problem. Keep the squatters, and FOREVER face flooding, no matter how many pumps or sluice gates there are or how many more millions of dollars are spent, the blockage and reason for the City flooding is the RUIMVELDT SQUATTERS and THE MAYOR.
you got a strong point, here MC. is your field hydraulics? ….nah I don’t think so. but good reasoning anyhow
Yes mackydog,we will relocate the squatters to the mackydog scheme!!!
Mackydog – Where do you live? I did not know you pay taxes in GY? Do you? What’s the deal with “our tax payers monies are wasted paying these incompetent “Mayors”?
sometimes Mackydog does talk BS but this time he meking lil sense, except where to relocate the squatters?
SWAT,
I left Guyana when I was 27years old, which gave me a 10 year contribution to the tax and NIS coffers of which I have never been reimbursed, and monies which was inappropriated by the PNC. That money I consider to be tax I PAID, so regardless of where I live now, I PAID TAXES IN GUYANA. Nevertheless, the people I referred to in my comment as “our tax payers”, I meant MY Guyanese people in Guyana since I’m STILL a Guyanese and has never sworn allegiance to no other nation, my people are still my own as I am their’s…thus my words “ours (as in our Guyana)tax payers”. Got it now?
700 million is not enough to fix drainage systems in farming areas in Region 4 much less georgetown. U clean today the grass grows back tomorrow and the drain becomes silted up again..so everybody should clean what belongs to them..and stop depending on others.
It is rightly said that the Mayor should look after the drainage works since they are collecting taxes from businesses in Georgetown..it is the same with most of the RDCs they collect taxes and don’t do any work.
The government can’t do anything to remedy the suitation since flooding is dependent on the weather, tides,garbage and clogged drainage systems (which most of us contribute to)and the fact we are below sea level. Only if u expect Jagdeo and his ministers to be Hanuman and lift us out of the floods maybe then we will say they did enough.
So friends since growing up in Guyana flooding is not somthing new it always happens ..and we should get over it..it will continue to happen wether we like it or not..who dont like it.. move inland….go live on the higway..who like the floods…live on the coast and take what comes..Don’t stress over it…life is too short…enjoy life..lol
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