Photos by Sara Bharrat
Flood waters have risen in several villages along the East Coast Demerara (ECD) following heavy showers on Sunday night and early yesterday morning.
These young boys were swimming in the unsafe floodwaters at Brushe Dam, Friendship yesterday. (Photo by Sara Bharrat)
Yesterday a stench emanated from the water and some villagers, who have begun to suffer from skin and respiratory ailments said they were treated. However, this newspaper observed several children playing, swimming or just standing around in the stagnant water, a sign that the health messages have not had the desired impact.
Farmers along the East Coast Demerara were forced to allow their livestock to roam freely in the floodwaters.
The Hydrometerological Service warned yesterday that rainfall is likely to meet a maximum of 80 millimetres (mm) by Friday.
“Due to heavy rainfall experienced last evening [Sunday] and early this morning [Monday] in Regions Two, Three, Four and Five, the accumulation of water continues in low lying areas of Canal Numbers One and Two Polders, and areas along the East Coast Demerara,” the Ministry of Agriculture said in a press statement yesterday.
A section of the basin located at the northern end of Company Road, Buxton.
Lionel Wordsworth, Chief Executive Officer of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), “indicated that pumps and sluices are operable and are being closely monitored.”
However, Wordsworth said that while the water levels along the coast of Regions Three and Four are “receding rapidly” there has been an “incremental increase” in the water level in upper Mahaica and Mahaicony Creeks.
This trench located beside Brushe Dam, Friendship is partially clogged up by garbage.
The East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) is being constantly monitored and evaluated, the press release said, to ensure that there is no threat to its structure. EDWC’s embankment crest is 59 GD (Georgetown Datum) and the current water level is 57.45 GD, which according to the ministry, indicates that the conservancy has not reached its full supply.
According to the weather forecast, today and tomorrow will see cloudy conditions with occasional showers over most areas. Between 5 mm and 25 mm of rainfall is expected over Regions Two to Six.
Barely visible in the centre of this photo are the heads of two little boys. They were floating in the floodwaters at Friendship, East Coast Demerara yesterday.
Things will get more intense for these regions and Regions Seven and Ten Thursday through Friday as cloudy overcasts with moderate to heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected.
The Buxton basin
Just behind Buxton Company Road to the left of its drainage station there is a huge basin. The floodwater according to a worker who did not identify himself, is pumped into the basin and then into the Atlantic Ocean.
This clogged section of the Side Line Dam trench on the western side of Buxton Company Road is on the brink of over flowing.
When Stabroek News visited the area shortly before 1 pm yesterday many yards located along Company Road had up to 12 inches of water. A foul odour emanated from the water and livestock, mainly ducks, could be seen paddling about freely.
“We have to let our stock roam freely because we can’t just leave them held up in the water,” Luther Newton, a farmer who resides in the area said.
Newton explained that since the water began rising last Tuesday crops have been washed away and many poultry farmers like him are being forced to market premature stock to avoid suffering further losses.
The Buxton Drainage Station has been pumping water into the basin without a break since last week. However, the water level continues to fluctuate. At present it has risen a few inches.
“Yesterday [Sunday] the water receded approximately 8 inches and I think the water is about 50 inches today,” the pump operator estimated.
He explained that he does not have a gauge to monitor the water level. The wooden gauge which was used by the pump station rotted some eight to ten months ago and has not yet been replaced, the pump operator said.
The Side Line Dam trench to the west of Company Road has a koker located at its mouth. However, that koker can not be used because the basin is located directly behind it. The water level in the basin is higher than that of the trench.
Parallel to the trench is the narrow Side Line Dam. If the water in the trench increases by an inch it will be level with the dam. Many residents are fearful of the consequences if the Side Line Dam trench overflows.
Moving in for a closer look at the basin Stabroek News observed that about two feet of mud has been banked up around the basin adding to its capacity.
A foreman who was on site at the time told this newspaper that “the mud banked around the basin is not an indication that the basin is overflowing”.
Dazzell flood woes
“I trust in God…I believe that he won’t let what happened in 2005 repeat itself. I am a woman of faith,” Janet Sweeney said as she bailed water from her Dazzell Housing Scheme, Paradise home yesterday.
Dazzell Housing Scheme is one of the many areas along the ECD which is being affected by the steady showers of rain. Residents, like many others who live along the coast, told this newspaper they live in fear of a flooding worse than 2005.
The entrance of the housing scheme is located on the southern side of the Railway Embankment road. A main road leading into the scheme runs through its 23 streets from north to south.
When Stabroek News visited the area at approximately 1.40 pm there was up to two feet of water on both the east and west sides of First Street. Residents there explained that the water level had risen during the heavy rainfall on Sunday night which continued into the early hours of yesterday morning.
“The water is not being drained off…we are being promised temporary pumps but I think given the situation this area needs permanent pumps,” G. Johnson, a resident of First Street, said.
Moving further into First Street to Sweeney’s home we met the woman bailing water from the front verandah of her one storey house. She told this newspaper that water started to accumulate in the area since last Tuesday.
Another resident, who refused to identify himself, said that the water had receded approximately eight inches on Sunday but the rainfall that night caused the water level to return to where it was in some sections.
Second Street was entirely submerged while the eastern side of Third Street was visible. Stabroek News was able to discern from residents that the western end of the streets, especially from Sixth Street onwards had more water.
As we traveled further into Dazzell along the main road Sixth to Eighth and Tenth to Nineteenth Streets were fully submerged while the water was lower in some part of Ninth Street. However, from Nineteenth Street to Twenty-Third Street the main road was no longer visible.
Fitzroy Johnson of Lot 126 Nineteenth Street said the water was beginning to smell offensive.
“Whenever we got to go out in that water it itching our skin…doesn’t look like it going anywhere anytime soon,” Johnson stated.
Health care
According to Johnson, health workers from the Oxfam organisation were in the area on Sunday. The health workers, he said, examined his children and gave them medicine for their colds and skin rashes.
In an effort to provide further health care for communities affected by the recent heavy rainfall the Ministry of Health announced that all Community Health Centres and Health Posts on the ECD will be opened for extended periods during the rainy season.
A Government Information Agency (GINA) press statement issued yesterday said “the ministry noted that currently mobile health teams are on standby in the event there is need for them to be dispatched”.
Further, the GINA release stated that a team of three medics and support staff has been treating persons at Plantation Hope, ECD. According to Minister with the Ministry of Health, Bheri Ramsarran, adults were treated for Respiratory Tract Infection (RTI).
However, although efforts are being made by the various organisations to provide health care for those affected by floodwaters many villagers still have not had access to a mobile health team or managed to visit a community centre.
Many Buxtonians, villagers from Brushe Dam, Friendship and Dazzell Housing Scheme are still in need of medical attention.
The first person to die from leptospirosis will spell trouble for most Guyanese.
The 1st to die from it this time around. Mr Sandiford, village chairman for Plaisance died from it a few yrs ago. So did quite a few others, rats breed leptospirosis.
I passed through Buxton the other day and i didn’t even noticed the place was this flooded, My word, the Ministry of Health needs to dispatch some volunteers to this area to inform the residents of the dangers lurking in the water.
why u think the ppl don’t know the danger and why is it these ppl got the little ones playing in such high water when someone drown then the will say the famous lines THE GOVERNMENT FAULT.
SF…People know the dangers in the water already…the D&I has to be blamed for this flooding……All the canals are clogged up, you get approx. 4 hours tide to pull off the water, where will it pass? You have pump to back it up, the pumps are out of fuel, sluices are left with padlocks on..so many inefiency by D&I and they get off with all, while people lose millions of dollars,,all that they worked for their lifetime,,,then one deciple will come and offer a lil 10,000.00 compensation,,,So Ridicilus…people are fed up not but cannot do better…The D&I just need to use some common sense and everybody will be happy.
When those responsible feel they have the power to decide which companies (to the exclusion of a certain U. S. based one) they wish to select for electricity generation from garbage then these are the results you get. Also, re: “You have pump to back it up, the pumps are out of fuel”… Rather than exporting the “scrap metals… Think about how many pumps could have been manufactured by the Guyana National Engineering Corporation (GNEC) – Foundry Facilities for activation at this critical juncture. And you get the short sighted “spiteful” and “incompetency” drift!
Snadhurst, you see what I’m talking about?
Dont wait, you start the volunteering, go and spread the message of the dangers of engaging in the activities such as those youths are.
Someone must start this struggle Bro. Take the initiative man.
Allison, i broken like dog, who is going to give me money to catch bus and all them things to alert the people??? i am willing but the pocket is very weak baby!!
The govt should the drainage system in guyana. They always wait for the rainy to do the remidial works. The people of guyana have to stop dumping garbage whenever and wherever they please.
Hey Sandman! Re: “Allison, I broken like dog, who is going to give me money to catch bus and all them things to alert the people??? i am willing but the pocket is very weak baby!!” If you are available for employment then perhaps Stabroek News (SN) (or some other Media House) can consider sending you on some assignments.
sand i will say this only once to guyanese develop gills
Temperorary pump? Dem can’t even replace de wooden water level gauge dat rotten way 8-10 monnths ago. How much dat gun cost?
- a long fine piece a green heart 6′x 3″ x 1″ = 0.125 BM @ $200 = $25
- a 3″ paint brush $200
- a fine point paint brush $100
- 1 pint red paint and 1 pint white paint $1,200
- 1 pint kero $100
- wukmanship $2,000
Total: $3,625 (Guy) = $18 (US) = 11 pounds (UK).
I just paid $500 for a 3″ paintbrush form Nat’l Hardware but I get your excellent point.
Poor, benighted Guyana,assaulted on all sides.
sandhurst boy is does be the first on the scene and ya even ah reply to u self i wonder do u answer back (hehehehe)
If you were intelligent enough to understand this new website you would see that i am not replying to myself and you would also see that when i am answering to the comments it is directed to someone who had commented on my comment….oh i don’t talk to myself, lets leave that to someone else!
sandhurst i speak to myself, it’s not bad, try it sometimes. its keeps my sanity intact.
Don’t worry folks! The proactive and micormanaging President Jagdeo is on his way like superman! He was otherwise busy in Poland making his case for US580 million to avoid deforestation while the capital and its environs with their billions were being flooded, so now he is back in Flood Town, he will put on his rubber boots, rain coat and state umbrella and start wading through the dirty, smelly waters to visit affected communities. Ohh the childred! Ohh the elderly! Ohh the disabled!
I am sure he will dip into the resourceful Consolditated Fund to help defray costs for recovery and displacement. He may even call a ’stakeholders meeting’ to find consensus, as usual, and then proceed to do his own thing.
The Government’s motto at this time seems to be: SAVE THE FORESTS! DROWN THE CITY! If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, then Jagdeo dawdled while Georgetown dand environs flooded!
… depending on how long the water stays on the land ,, and the demand for “living” in it ,, will determine the severity of “mud fever” common for “leptospirosis”,,, homes will be invaded by rats ,, food will become contaminated ,, scabies and ,, other diseases will continue ,, the entire economy will suffer !
water has no shape or form ,, if it can’t go here it will go there ,, there is a dam just a few hundred kms south from the wai wai village in Konashen ,, between Manaus in Brazil ,, this dam (Balbina) it’s production of energy is very limited — 250 megawatts — but it floods
an area of 2,360 sq kms ! this dam’s proximity to GY’s 1% that is in the Amazon’s “basin” is now experiencing the effects of how water that has no shape or form ,, will go there if it’s too much for here! here being the reservoir of the Balbina Dam !,,
this Dam built on the Uatuma river a tributary of the Amazon that is east of Manaus — on the west bank like Manaus — is considered a financial and environmental disaster ! the rain season ,, is innundating this dam ,, whose reservoir is west of the Amazon River on the Uatuma ,, obviously ,, if the area that is normally flooded by this dam is 2,360 sq kms ,, it must be considered as being the chief reason for the excess water from the reservoir of this dam just a few hundred kms from the southern tip of Gy ,, it will find it’s way into Gy ,, where on the coast ,, there is the perpetual phenomena of changing tides ,, when the tides is high ,, not much water can be drained ,, so by the time the next 6 hours comes around ,, more rains brings more water than the D&I engineers with their tiny pumps and the total ignorance of the might of the Amazon River ,, and the lanscape to which we belong !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
those engineers ,, need to know ,, somebody should tell them that all the rivers in GUYANA is subtributaries of the Amazon ! and the Amazon dictates water flow east of the Andes ,, where it now summer time ! ,,
thus the melt ,, by the sun ,, on the eqatorial line across the peaks !
Right, MT. Can see Uatuma river dam on Google Earth. Even a photo of the dam (HUGE!). Your sq. km is about right, too. It’s about 300 km from Guyana’s southern border. But there’s the Kanuku mountain range between Konashen and Uatuma!
Interested to know exactly where you got your info that the rivers of Guyana are subtributaries of the Amazon.
Well, from what you are saying “michael tannassee”; don’t you now believe that the late L. F. S. Burnham Administration (and, as we were so often reminded by Rory Westmas et al in these columns) had it right when it was proposed to move Guyana’s Capital to higher ground. One might guess that after a TSUNAME hits Guyana’s low-lying coastlands then those who survive will consider moving.
This is a “strange” explanation for the coastal flooding in Guyana. All the rivers south of the Acarai Mountains watershed drain into the Amazon. All the rivers north of the Acarai Mtns. drain towards the Atlantic. The Acarai Mtns are some 3000ft high.
So how can a resevoir on a tributary of the Amazon back up so high that the water climbs up over the 3000ft Acarai range to deluge the Guyana rivers and coast?
There is one exception; the border river Takutu drains part of the Rupununi basin then discharges into the Branco which is a tributary of the Amazon. When the Takutu and the Branco back up, the Rupununi floods (an annual occurence)and the Essequibo and Takutu basins essentially become one, or become linked in a way similar to what Tannassee describes. But the Essequibo can handle the discharge from the flooded Rupununi, yes it can rise 15/20ft in places on its upper course but by the time it gets to the coast its great volume of water is spread out over its wide delta, the people who live along its banks know how to cope with the occasional floods.
Flooding from the Essequibo,is not a factor in this current debacle, and it has nothing to do with dams or resevoirs in the Amazon catchment area. This is merely rainfall being allowed to accumulate on the low-lying coastal plain without adequate means of discharging it over the seawalls into the ocean.
Thanks for the explanation, Para H. Makes better sense than MT’s.
Mr Tannassee you are one of the most difficult writer to follow or I may be dumb or stupid. I simple do not understand what you are trying to communicate!!
Hi : re:”[...Flooding from the Essequibo,is not a factor in this current debacle, and it has nothing to do with dams or reservoirs in the Amazon catchment area. This is merely rainfall being allowed to accumulate on the low-lying coastal plain without adequate means of discharging it over the seawalls into the ocean...]” And, it does not take a “rocket scientist” to determine that the simple solution to rid the “excess” water from Guyana’s low-lying areas is the introduction of (well, we heard of the Guns Of Navarone) how about if we call these the “Pumps of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice”!
Now, how high will these “P-U-M-P-S” be positioned off the High Level Water Datum Line?
MT, if you speak the truth then Guyana really faces a monstrous threat. I was thinking about buying a piece of land on the coast to build a little 3br house but this rainy season and its reviews, really have me thinking otherwise. Despite the facts and the flooding, people are still asking unbelievably high prices for low undeveloped lands; they behave as though they’re selling part of Miami. Many are ignorant of the challenges that lie ahead for Guyana; I hope the Government is not included.
branco is a tributary of the rio negro ,, which is the largest tributary of the Amazon ,, thus making branco a subtributary ,, tonot make this more confusing for the lesser minds ,, i said all the rivers in GY r subtributaries of the Amazon ,, they are sub sub trubutaries !
and as for the Kanuku mts,, they are more east of the flow of the branco and the flows more from south to north ,, many of the rivers have not as yet been charted in GY ,, but to get back to the reason for the deluge and the flooding ,, it is too complex an issue to be justified here ,, my posts is meant to highlight the major sources of the problem ,, that has only 1 solution ,, RELOCATION ! i said this in 2000 and i have been lamenting this all of 2006 to date ,, it makes for puerile satisfaction to be nit picking and splitting hairs while “rome burns” in this case water rather than fire ,, a more devastating force than fire in many respects ,, since and this is the logic to the floods “water has no shape or form” and the logic becomes much more substantive when i add ,, ” if it can’t go here it will go there” ! which is given credence ,,, by the panic that is slowly taking shape as the torture takes hold !…
i pray that fate is on “your” side !,, for the incompetence that is being orchestrated ,, by the govt ,, is to say ,, the obvious ! ,,,, well ,,,,, incompetent ! or is it the D&I ?????
Sorry, MT. the Sierra Acaria mountain range is between the Uamuta reservoir and Guyana’s south. The range is higher than the reservoir. So I’m wondering how water can flow UPHILL in OPEN channels. Try harder, MT!
it is goin to be a repeat of the 2005 dec/jan flood and disease outbreak in this country of mine. i do hope the ppl in these flooded areas are takin precautioins. its already a financially difficult time in guyana and the wider world.
Residents of Guyana keep bemoaning the draining and flooding of different locations,but where are the photographers and newspapers before the rain(start to)fall.Very “beautiful” pictures and constant reporting could be done every day to express the disgust of the citizens,
guyana is not below sea level all the time.every 6 hrs is tide.it is lack of maintenance causes these problems.in gt everybody want concrete yard water cannot soak up but runs.all those culverts are made undersize causing them to block up quick.what happen to the standards and regulation in constructing these projects?look like somebody getting paid.
Very well said ALLAN. In London very soon all those who want to pave or concrete their yard or drive way will cost them dearly,,,,,this is preventing the water to soak up and causing drains etc. unable to cope.. In Guyana the problems of flooding may never be rectified because people are using the drainage and trenches as a rubbish dump,so what can we expect…stagnant water,smelly water,green water etc…….When a serious water borne epidemic disease broke out in Guyana ….that may be the end of the Guyanese civilization living in Guyana…..
for some time now i have been making comments on this site and stabroek news dont publish it.i have been telling the truth-dont know if its “too hard” material to publish.
Same with me ALAN….the truth hurts………….they prefer to publish the rubbish that some people are writing…Stabroek News is a ‘BAD NEWS’ PAPER..Have you ever read anything good about guyana in Stabroek News?
Flooding is inevitable for many parts of the country.
The coastal region is like a basin, always waiting to be filled.
To the north sits the high and mighty Atlantic and to the south, massive quantities of fresh water/runoffs…
The over topping at Montrose earlier this year shows the vulnerability of the seawall. The wall is deteriorating and it’s too low to handle the rising Atlantic Ocean… After the flood of 2005, the Conservancy Dam is still questionable despite the efforts to repair it. There are a couple of insurance companies that do not offer flood insurance for the East Coast and other low areas because of these reasons.
Some leaders give the impression that drainage is manageable.
I hope that’s true and wonder if they have a plan, for in the event, things become unmanageable.