Ramsammy pledges major relief effort for Mahaica/Mahaicony

-after Maduni release

Acknowledging that there were significant losses to farmers in Mahaica/Mahaicony communities following the release of conservancy water through the Maduni sluice, Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy yesterday pledged a major relief effort.

Ramsammy said there is no evidence of a breach or overtopping of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) dam and added that with good weather continuing, the authorities will be able to close the Maduni sluice in a matter of days.

Water gushing through the Maduni sluice yesterday. Because of this, residents of Mahaica and Mahaicony Creeks are experiencing flood woes. Inset, the ‘ruler’ at the Maduni sluice shows the height of the water in the East Demerara Water Conservancy. (Photos by Anjuli Persaud)

He spoke to members of the media while on a visit to the EDWC, starting at Flagstaff and ending up at the Maduni sluice. The Maduni was opened on Tuesday as the Ministry took the decision to release water into the Mahaica Creek as a means of averting the possibility of greater catastrophe should the fragile banks of the conservancy break under pressure or overtop because of heavy rains. The release of water via the Maduni has, however, caused flooding in the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks. Visits by Stabroek News reporters to both areas revealed deep flooding and frustration in several areas.

“We wanted to visit the conservancy to check on a number of things. We have been constantly monitoring the conservancy for the level and we have been constantly monitoring the dam that we are standing on right now for either breaches of the dam or for overtopping. I want to once again assure everyone that there is no breach on the conservancy dam,” he said. The Great Flood of 2005 was caused in part by significant overtopping of the EDWC dam.

Ramsammy said that on Thursday, head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Lionel Wordsworth and other members of staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and persons from the Guyana Sugar Corporation flew over the conservancy and reported that there had been no breaches witnessed from the air.

“We are happy that there has been no significant rainfall over the last few days, and unlike what the models demonstrated earlier in the week, the present models indicated that we are likely to continue to enjoy some good weather. The forecast for the next 72 hours indicates that the maximum we are likely to have is no more than 35 millimeters per day in some areas,” he said. “That is good news for us. What that allows us to do is to ensure that all those communities that had water on the East Coast will have their waters receding,” he said.

“We expect that 80 percent or more of the water on land would have receded. And that was our first goal; to make sure that water recedes,” he said.

The Minister said too that right now, the major concern for the Ministry continues to be the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary area. In the Mahaicony, the river water is continuing to rise and there continues to be problems on the land. “We are hoping that with the good weather that we would be able to close Maduni soon and if Maduni is closed and we keep leading water out to the Atlantic then we should avert a major disaster to the area even though there are significant losses already suffered by the farmers in the area,” Ramsammy said.

“We do know that it will take a while before the water level goes down and things get back to normal in those areas. So the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary areas will now become our number one focus,” he said.

“A lot of our energy is going to shift and focus almost entirely on the MMA area, also the Pomeroon and Canal No. 1 and 2 Polder. That does not mean that we wouldn’t be focusing on the other areas,” he said.

He added that the Ministry will be dedicating a lot of manpower and other resources to the MMA areas “so that we could bring those areas to normalcy as quickly as possible.”

Mahaica, Mahaicony and the Abary have endured deep flooding in recent years after the deliberate release of water from the EDWC via the Maduni sluice. The areas were badly affected in 2005 and 2006. There were less serious cases in the years since. This year’s has been quite extensive and the threat is not over. There have been calls by farmers from 100% compensation from the government because of the deliberate flooding of their cultivations.

The Minister said that despite the fact that the heavy rainfall resulted in flooding in some communities, “we could have been in a more terrible situation had we not done all the work that we had done for several years.”

“The fact that many of our canals are now able to move water…we shouldn’t underestimate the fact that in spite of the flood, and amount of rainfall we had could have caused a more serious problem. So we will continue to work to make sure that 100 percent of the water is relieved and that we revert back to 100 percent normalcy by this weekend,” he said.

The Minister said that the conservancy as at yesterday was approaching 58.45 Georgetown Datum. Wordsworth said that over the past 72 hours the level of the conservancy has been stabilized at about 58.50 GD. “But today I see it has started to show a lower level at 58.45 GD,” said Wordsworth.

“With no further rainfall we expect to close the Maduni sluice at a level close to 58. 00 GD,” said Wordsworth.