Water is currently being released through the Lama as well as the Maduni sluice and residents in the Mahaica Creek said while the level is rising slowly there flooding is “hitting” the Mahaicony and Abary Creeks even harder.
Cows from the Abary Creek foraging in a rice field yesterday.
The Maduni sluice was the first to be opened following intense rainfall two weeks ago which resulted in the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) being at a threatening level.
This newspaper understands that the Lama sluice was supposed to be closed yesterday if the rain had eased; unfortunately it had not. The Maduni sluice on the other hand, would remain open “until the level is safe.”
During a visit to the Mahaica Creek on Monday, President Bharrat Jagdeo was confronted by residents about why they were not informed that the sluices were opened. They also questioned him as to why the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture only admitted after it was published in this newspaper that residents had videoed the opened sluice as “proof.”
The president responded that notices were placed on television for residents to be on the alert. The residents further challenged him that “telling people to be on the alert and telling them that it (the sluice) was opened is not the same…”
The president announced when he visited the three creeks on Monday that some $3B would be spent to dig a canal at Hope that would drain the water from the EDWC to the Atlantic instead of through the creeks.
A dog on a bridge in the Mahaicony Creek yesterday.
He said it is a “short distance from the conservancy to the Atlantic and if it is wide enough it can take a lot of the water out.”
Residents were pleased with government’s step to reduce the flooding situation but said it should have been done a long time ago. They said too that they did not want the creeks to remain a “drainage canal.”
The Mahaica Creek residents who earn a living mainly through cash crop and rice farming as well as livestock rearing, suffered severe losses to the flood after the water level started to rise. The farmers are running out of dry land for their livestock which have started to dwindle.
On Monday, a few cows and horses that were brought out of the creek were spotted searching for food in rice fields in an area in front of the Abary Creek, much to the annoyance of the rice farmers.
President Jagdeo promised the farmers that he would assist them with planting materials, fertilizer and some fuel to replant their crops after the rainy season. He said too that the Civil Defence Commission would be providing food hampers to poor families.
Farmers during a meeting in the Mahaicony Creek with the president.
He also assured the cash crop farmers of the Mahaica Creek that they would be given some financial assistance. While the residents were grateful, a few large-scale farmers said they had expected to be compensated more because of the extent of their loss.
However the president said that he could not provide any more money as recompense because of the amount that would be spent to dig the canal.
Some parents also told the president that as a result of losing their livelihood they could not afford to send their children to schools on the coast. He then promised to assist with transportation costs until the flood is over.
Further the Head of State committed to providing funds to fix about 1200 ft. of the access dam at Big Biaboo that is in a deplorable condition and to build the embankment at the front of the creek from Big Biaboo to Grass Hook.
Residents also made a request for tubes to be placed along the Region Four embankment – on the left bank of the creek – as the excavator “dig in front of the houses and did not put tubing and it blinding the trenches.” But the president said he did not have money for that.
Meanwhile over at the Mahaicony Creek the water level has risen even more and was still flowing over to the villages of Wash Clothes and Mortice.
Breaking news!!! GY has more timber that they can handle… Use timber if you don’t have money for tubes. The timber can be replaced when money is ‘found’ for tubes!!!
Surprisingly we hear of only two sluices and they both drain into the same area (Mahaica/Mahaicony)??? I thought this canal ran west to the Demerara river where the Cunha canal was part of the drainage system??? Aren’t there other outlets to the Demerara river or are these the only functioning gates????
Mahaicony/Mahaica is more available and has more capacity than the links to the Demerara River. The MMA canal was intended (when completed) to assist in controlling the EDWC at safe levels. Sad to say the ‘mouths of these rivers are all silted up so the water flow is reduced hence the rising levels up river!!
A while back we used hollow tree trunks for tubes and they lasted for years. Now I guess no one is interested in that. Metal tubes are the ‘thing’ today!
They need to ‘fix’ the EDWC. That is long overdue! Last attempt at a ‘fix’ resulted in its capacity decreasing!!!
I am telling you this president is nuts, not to compensate the farmers, maybe someone should drain the water in his backyard and the other ministers. I was in Mahaicony and was being hosted by a rice farmer, the guy spend 12k a day in disel to pump water with his tractor, night in and day out, works like a slave in the field, i have experience this first hand. Not recently there was a dry spell why was the preparation not done then, well do some diging and you will see some was is pocketing the cash. These farmers need help asap.
You in your own words were there RP. Did you not find a solution to help these farmers whilst you were there enjoying guyanese hospitality? You should have asked for a meeting with these ministers and Jagdeo and tell them how to help!
Why wait until you come back to Canada where it’s cold with 3 feet high snow and mushy ones on the pavement and roads and blog that these farmers need help? Bet you wish you were back there with hospitable people catering your whims, eating curry and rice with your feet cock up on the verandah. EH!
Tell us again…..how can YOU help?
…. is anything less expected ???????????? from anyone ???????????????
we still orbiting the sun and the Andes is in the path of the sun as we orbit ,,, “climate change” ,, added to the comstant rains made from the humidity by a rain forest ,, almost the size of the continental USA minus california and texas ! it’s called nature ,, have we tried to harness nature b4 ??????????? or live in harmony with it ,, which one has the better dividends ! for less !….
those who come here to spill their stupidity ,, and race bait ,, need to stop and look at who they r destroying ,, and try to at least show some love for the country and try to help ,, here’s how u can …..
give to corbin my facts,, as i share them with u ,,,, but don’t take my word for it ,, i will guide u to understanding the dynamics of the landscape to which we belong and en gyin no place soon ! all yuh gat fuh duh ,, is send me a mail
iamtan4ever@msn.com
I am going there . Wish me a goosd swim.
“the Andes is in the path of the sun as we orbit” !?!?!?! Everything on earth is in the path of the sun as we orbit!
That is how the world is turned. if the president does’nt do this then try to fix it, every one in guyana is going to say he is just sitting and naa do nutting. In other words he (jagdaeo) is trying to good.