The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday issued a flood alert for the upper reaches of the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks and when Stabroek News visited the areas some farms had already been submerged.
The release from the ministry, which came after this newspaper had sought a comment on flooding in the area, said its Hydrometeorological Service had recorded close to 85 inches over the past two weeks in the upper reaches. It said this is well above the normal level for the rainy season. It provided no further information on this rainfall figure or the collection stations it had been drawn from.
The ministry urged farmers of the upper reaches particularly Joe Hook/Grass Hook in Mahaica to take the necessary precautions. These farmers have been flooded sometimes two to three times per annum in recent years.
Yesterday, instead of enjoying their holidays, residents of the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks watched helplessly as the water level rose causing them to lose their crops.
When Stabroek News visited, most of the residents’ yards and gardens were flooded and they were distressed over their losses. They said they had only recently gotten over a major flood in September and “we duck out again.”
Their main concern was to “leave the area before the same happen again.” Residents of Joe Hook and Grass Hook were given house lots at Hope, East Coast Demerara during the last flood to escape from future disasters but they said they need some assistance to relocate. The Ministry’s press release yesterday noted that the residents of these areas had been offered house lots and added that the process has been started and is being coordinated by the Ministry of Housing.
During a visit to the area two weeks ago residents told SN that the water level in the creek had increased by one foot. They were afraid that if the rain continued they would be inundated again and they would suffer serious losses. Yesterday, they said the water level was three feet higher than the normal level.
Residents of Mahaicony creek also complained of being affected by flooding and of losing their crops. A resident, Norma Persaud of Gordon Table told this newspaper that the “water keep rising all the time and I feel it is coming from the (East Demerara Water) conservancy.”
She said “If the rain continue until January we would get a worse flood than the last time. Me sick with this thing already. To me rain or not the water keep climbing all the time pun we.”
Under threat
Marcellos Sarju who resides on the right bank of the Mahaica Creek told SN he had already lost 400 roots of bora and another 900 roots are under threat as well as his cucumbers, suckers and watermelon. He said his cattle are also affected and that the pasture already has two feet of water.
“We just recover from a flood and another one come again. I want to evacuate but I don’t have the finance. I keep waiting on all the crops to save the money to move but we just keep getting more disaster every time.”
SN caught up with Sarju at the same time that he caught a fish in his seine in front of his home. He predicts that the water would not recede until the rain stops and “it seems like the rain would continue for a long time and we are heading for a very big flood.”
He was thankful to government though, for providing an excavator earlier this year to raise the level of the farmland close to his home. He is preparing to plant there and said the “flood cannot affect that area easily.”
Sarju said his five-acre farm is situated in the Maduni Creek and that on December 6 he was there and noticed that from “the pressure that the water was rushing out of the creek I suspected that the sluice [Maduni] was open.”
He said in a few hours the water level rose a few inches in the Mahaica Creek. “I know that the rainfall water cause the flood but that [opening of the sluice] help to build up the water.” The authorities have denied that this sluice was opened.
A resident of Grass Hook, Sundat Ramoutar told this newspaper, “Ah try fuh mek life easy but flood mek it hard pun me. I was trying fuh raise enough money from this crop fuh move but now ah flop. It real rough
