Mayor condemns planned city pumps takeover

An announcement by President Bharrat Jagdeo that the government will be taking control of key city pumps has been described as “an assault of our democracy” by Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green.

Hamilton Green
Hamilton Green

Green at a press conference yesterday morning said that in spite of the city’s limited resources all pumps and kokers are working satisfactorily, hence the President’s statement must be misguided.

Green was at the time referring to President Jagdeo’s statement on Thursday while visiting the Liliendaal drainage pumps along with the Ministers of Public Works, Agriculture and Local Government.

According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release the head of state accused the Georgetown City Council of neglecting the drainage infrastructure and said that Central Government will take over the management of the pumps responsible for draining city areas.

In response to this, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams told yesterday’s city press conference that he is very concerned at the reason given by the President for the takeover. Williams questioned what neglect the President was referring to. He said that for 34 years the Liliendaal pump station has been under the jurisdiction of the city and has been operational all the while and now suddenly it is to be removed.

President Jagdeo also said according to the release, that the government plans to deploy some more funds to boost the drainage and irrigation capacity. The President was quoted as saying that “we’ve wrapped up this year’s figures and there may be a slight capacity to do a bit more…allocate a bit more money at this time to flooding, money that we couldn’t spend earlier.”

As regards money spent on drainage, both Green and Williams said that of the $1.7 billion reported by the press as having been spent by the government so far, none of it was given to the city. Williams pointed out that some $26 million could have been given to replace the Kitty pump which is in dire need of replacement.

Meanwhile Green said too that there is a visible improvement in the Georgetown situation and that he will not be “cowed, frightened or silenced,” on the issue.

Williams said that further that the fact that persons can walk on city streets is testament that the city is doing its job. The deputy mayor explained that normally the city expects 262 mm of rainfall in the season. For the first 18 days of the rainy season there has been 400 mm-plus of rainfall and a lot more is expected.

He said that the city was able to deal with the excess water and that they are working assiduously to drain accumulated water from the land. The fact that there is no huge build up of water indicates that there is a system in place, Williams said.

Green added that those persons in society who campaign for a democracy should not ignore this move by the Government. He likened it to the taking over of the sole car park that was run by the city earlier this year. It is also reminiscent of the fight over the Cubana air disaster monument that is yet to materialize, Green stated.

In the meantime both the President and the mayor addressed the issue of the dumping of waste into major drainage canals. The release said that the president mentioned the dumping of mattresses, old fridges and even old engines in the canals. He talked of an old engine block that was dumped close to the grill of a pump almost to the point of being sucked in. Green said that this continues to be a problem the city must deal with, and will continue to tackle wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile Jagdeo said that despite major investments by the administration, persons will experience a level of discomfort since the design of the drainage system could only handle two inches of rainfall per day, even when it was in the best of shape. Therefore if the rain continues and there is four and eight inches of rainfall there will be an accumulation on land. He said that the focus is to get the water in the drainage canals and storage basins down as low as possible.

The head of state said that it is because of negligence on the part of the City Council, Local Government bodies and various officials that the drainage system is in the shape it is in today.