Dear Editor,
Heavy rain flooded out a number of villages on the Essequibo Coast and the Pomeroon, causing severe damage to crops and livestock in addition to businessmen’s stocks which were stored on the floor. Water can be seen overtopping streets in the new and old housing schemes; flat concrete houses with furniture and their cooking areas are drenched. There are no indications that the weather situation will change.
There has been a tremendous increase in the rainfall in this month of January. Several hymacs and drain-diggers which were bought for Region Two lately were seen idle in the operation and Maintenance department for months, while most of the drains and trenches were clogged up along the entire coast. The main drainage trench in front of the Regional Chairman’s office that is responsible for the drainage of thousands of acres of rice lands as well as the housing areas from Mainstay to Anna Regina, operates inefficiently because of inadequate cleaning and maintenance .
All the large capacity caterpillar pumps which was installed by the previous administration along the sea defences from Mainstay to Sommerset and Berks, were removed by this present administration and replaced with smaller capacity pumps which are unable to discharge the volume of water coming from the main canals. Many kokers have been closed down, and these smaller pumps are unable to pump off the excess water in a timely manner, thus causing the flooding.
Once the drains and trenches are clogged up with weeds and bushes, the volume of water cannot reach the pumps to discharge the water. We still have far too many canals and trenches silted up in the region. Many pumps and machines are not being used at all or are either idle or inefficiently utilized in the region; the drainage system, kokers and pumps malfunction or operate inefficiently because of inadequate maintenance or the failure to correct some minor fault. Golden Fleece sluice, which cost the region and the government $200 million to construct is not fully utilized; one of the doors has been non-operational for years, causing rice lands and the housing areas to be flooded.
We have to make better use of the investments we already have; we have a great amount of man-made wealth in the form of sea and river defences, and drainage and irrigation systems which are not fully utilized. We have been rocked by too much flooding in the country because of maladministration and poor planning.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
