Dear Editor,
A few hours of heavy downpours on Thursday in what appears to be a signal for the start of the rainy season caused extensive flooding of vast areas of the city of Georgetown and its environs.
It is evident that the city, despite the recurrent flooding of its domain, has done very little or nothing to develop and execute a plan of action to improve its drainage system.
Therefore, it seems much of the same can be expected unless a plan of action is put in place quickly. The city should have on record the critical engineering data needed for the design and planned execution of the rehabilitation of its drainage system to prevent the recurrent flooding of the inhabited areas. It should also have had standby generators either through outright purchase and/or rental to run its electric pumps and not depend on GPL for power, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall. GPL’s track record for reliable power supply speaks for itself and for this reason most important companies and concerned private individuals in Guyana have a backup power system for their operations. The damage and inconvenience suffered on Thursday by citizens far outweigh the cost of providing emergency power for the city to operate its electric pumps.
Unfortunately, years of neglect coupled with unregulated land use change and urban sprawl have stressed the city’s drainage network to the extent that no one knows precisely the quantity of floodwaters, where they originate and the steps necessary to effectively deal with them to prevent extensive damage. Hence the impact of these changes in many parts of the city has led to recurring and increased flooding and/or the inability of the drainage system to remove the excess water in a timely manner.
As an immediate step, the city should concentrate its resources on clearing the internal flow blockages (weeds, silt, garbage, etc) from its drainage system to improve relief capacity. Concurrently, its gravity drainage should be augmented with pumps of adequate capacity to get rid of floodwaters during periods when the sluice gates are tide-locked. Additional pumping capacity should also be installed to remove excess rainfall above and beyond what the original city drainage system was designed to accommodate.
Finally, the city should have in place a trained workforce to better understand, operate and maintain its drainage relief system. With clear lines of responsibility and with the proposed infrastructure operational during critical periods of heavy rainfall, the city would have improved its effectiveness in managing the adverse impact of recurrent flooding on the well-being of its tired and flood-exhausted citizens, who have suffered so much.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
