Victoria breach causes rising water levels
After 22 days Dochfour is still swamped by inches of stagnant floodwater and Victoria seems to be heading towards a similar fate with the water level steadily rising because of a breach in the village’s West Side Line Dam.
Rain on Monday night caused the water level to rise again in many villages along the East Coast Demerara and the level has been fluctuating in villages like Dochfour and Victoria.
These areas have been swamped in feet of water for weeks. Other villages like Cove & John, Golden Grove, Haslington and Paradise have also seen a recent rise in water levels due to the rainfall.
When Stabroek News visited Dochfour yesterday afternoon the situation had not improved much. Residents reported that with the aid of the tractor pump the water had receded some. However, the rainfall on Monday night caused the water level to rise.
The tractor pump, residents said, has been working continuously since its installation on Sunday. Still, during our visit to the area this newspaper observed that the water level in Dochfour’s main drainage canal had risen as well.
Residents had suggested that a makeshift dam be built along the canal to increase its capacity. That dam was constructed using the mud removed from the bed of the drainage canal and has not fared well in the recent rainfall.
Water from the recent rains has further softened the mud and it appears to be “slipping” back into the canal. Meanwhile, the canal’s water level was up to yesterday afternoon approximately three inches from overtopping the dam.
In a similar fashion, the mud dug from the drain along the Dochfour main access road Monday afternoon was deposited on the parapet. Like the dam, it is being further softened by the rainfall and is beginning to return to its source.
“Dem do de thing and dem nah do it properly,” one woman who lives along the main access road said. “When da thing rush in back de drain then de drain just going to get back block up.”
Several Dochfour women had informed this newspaper, during a press briefing organized by the Guyana Citizens’ Initiative on Monday afternoon, that the Hope koker’s inability to drain the floodwater from the community lay in a faulty groyne which is causing the koker to become easily silted.
The Hope koker is the main drainage source for the Dochfour community but up to now has failed in relieving the community of the floodwaters.
Two pumps were functioning when Stabroek News visited the Hope koker/Drainage Station yesterday. Workers at the location informed this newspaper that the koker had been opened earlier and that “some” water was “moving through”.
This newspaper observed that piles of sand, mud and other obstacles were heaped along the eastern side of the Hope koker’s groyne yesterday shortly before 4 pm. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth, was still up to late last evening unavailable for comment.
A source associated with the NDIA’s team explained to this newspaper that the groyne of any given koker usually extends 1200 feet into the sea and is approximately 6 feet in height.
Replacing or even repairing a groyne takes a long time, the source explained, because works must be done when the tide is appropriate. While unable to give an estimated lifetime of a concrete groyne like the one at the Hope koker, the source informed that the structures can be easily weakened, can sink or even collapse based on the intensity of the waves for a given period.
Victoria’s water woes
Meanwhile, villagers of Victoria are still in as much watery misery as Dochfour residents. The water level in the village had been fluctuating between Sunday and Monday, although residents reported yesterday that it had increased and continued to do so.
A breach in the Victoria West Side Line Dam is being blamed for the village’s current situation. Residents informed Stabroek News that a number of village councillors had been selling the mud from the dam during the dry season.
The newspaper was directed to Randolph De Santos, Superintendent of Works for the Haslington/Grove Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC). According to residents, De Santos was one of the key persons involved in removing the mud from the dam.
During an interview at his Nabaclis office yesterday afternoon, he told Stabroek News that the Haslington/Grove NDC had been “authorized” since 2004 by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Four to remove “12 inches of mud” from the dam.
According to the Superintendent of Works, just after operations had begun the 2005 Great Flood struck and they were forced to stop removing the mud from the dam. “It was until February of this year that we started to remove the mud from the dam again. We removed 12 inches from about quarter mile of the dam,” De Santos said.
When asked why after such a long period of time these activities were continued and what was the purpose of removing the mud, De Santos said, “the trenches were being desilted at the time.”
“We were digging out the trenches…the dam was too high…so we removed the twelve inches and then built the dam up back with the mud we dug from the trenches,” he stated. “The dam would have been too high if we didn’t remove the twelve inches and the stuff would’ve slipped back into the trench.”
Further, De Santos explained that during February approximately 50 truck loads of mud were removed from the dam. The mud, he said, was sold to the truck drivers for $1,500 per truckload and they then resold it for $6000.
The money made from the sale of the mud, De Santos said, was deposited in the Haslington/Grove NDC’s account and these transactions were carefully recorded. De Santos produced a sheet of receipts from the sales which he showed to Stabroek News.
However, one of the receipts contradicted De Santos’ contention that mud had been removed from the dam and sold since February. One of the receipts was dated September 3 of this year and accounted for $24,000 received from an M. Prince as payment for 16 truckloads of “earth” at $1500 per load.
Several efforts made to contact Chairman of the Region Four RDC Clement Corlette about the matter were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, residents in Victoria told this newspaper that Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, visited the section of the Victoria West Side Line Dam which has “broken away.”
Following directions given by De Santos, Stabroek News was able to locate the section of the dam where the mud was removed. That area towards the south appeared to be several inches lower than the northern section of the dam. It was the section of the dam which residents said had been breached but was remedied on Sunday. However, there is still the section several miles farther along which has broken away.
De Santos explained that it was the soil composition of that section of the dam that has resulted in it being breached. Engineers, he said, have since assessed the problem and it will be addressed soon.
When asked about the breaches in the Victoria dam Sunday, CEO of the NDIA Wordsworth had only said that engineers were in the area addressing the issue and that he would be presented a full report before the end of that day. However, this newspaper has not been able to learn from Wordsworth what that report contained.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) in a press release sent last evening stated that Persaud, during his visit to Victoria, “confirmed that there was evidence of vandalism and sabotage by some residents with respect to the drainage and irrigation system”.
According the release, there are 22 “cuts” in the village’s West Side Line Dam and “reports were that persons removed the inlet structures”. Further, GINA reported that a computer and tyre were dumped into the pumping area at Victoria.
Wordsworth, according to GINA, stated that overtopping is occurring at the damaged Crown Dam and the cuts ranged from 20 feet to 100 feet.
