-local govt minister investigating

By Tiffny Rhodius
Minister of Local Govern-ment Clinton Collymore is investigating claims by the Good Success/Caledonia Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) that a businessman developing a new housing scheme at New Hope had degraded a dam built to protect the East Bank Dem-erara community from flooding.

Collymore was set to submit a report on the matter on Monday to Cabinet’s Sub-Committee on Local Government. He said two weeks ago he received a request from Deo Singh, the owner of the land being developed into a housing scheme, to have his water-logged land drained. Singh had also made an official complaint to the local government ministry against the NDC claiming that they were “not doing their work.”

In an interview with Stabroek News Singh said that the NDC had not been cleaning the drains and koker. “I cleaning the drains and I even sent men in the canal to clean it out. They [the NDC] not even opening the koker as it should be,” Singh said. However, the NDC has accused Singh of contributing to flooding in the area. NDC overseer Raghunandan Singh said Deo Singh does not want to create his own drainage system to drain water off his land. “He wants to drain…it into the New Hope system and the size of the canal cannot take on the water,” he added.

The overseer said too that a dam which bordered Singh’s land and residents of New Hope was destroyed and it cost the council millions of dollars to repair. This, he argued, is the real source of contention between Singh and the NDC. The overseer said this led Singh to lodge a complaint against the NDC “that we flooding him out.” However, Raghunandan Singh said neither he nor the NDC chairman will allow the rights of other residents to be trampled upon.

Totil Saygan, a retired engineer and spokesperson for New Hope residents, shared the NDC’s perspective on the issue. In explaining how the land is laid out Saygan said the front section of New Hope is higher than the back; because of this drains were specifically designed to drain water off the land from the front and back separately. Further, Saygan said in 2004 residents had pooled their money and had contracted SIMAP to design and build their drainage system.

However, when work started on the housing scheme, a “coffer dam” which Saygan said was built to divert water from the neighbouring piece of land, which was a swamp, was degraded during the dry season unknown to the residents. “When the rains came the people start flooding,” said Saygan, explaining that the dam was broken because the developer whom he named as Deo Singh, wanted to drain water into the New Hope drainage system instead of creating another drainage area for the housing scheme.

“He filled up his drains to get more lands,” Saygan charged. He also said about two weeks ago residents noticed that more degrading was being done to the dam and their efforts, along with those by NDC officials, to stop the works were met by armed guards. Saygan showed this newspaper a construction map showing where the dam had been built. He also produced photographic evidence showing the dam being degraded. The man said he and many New Hope residents are senior citizens and he believes that had it not been for his expertise in the engineering field, then persons would have taken advantage of the whole community.

Deo Singh however, denied that his workers had threatened anyone with guns. “No, no, why would they do that? It is hard to believe,” he said when NDC officials confronted him with the claims. He also said no dam had been built in the area, rather that residents had blocked the drain with ten feet of mud. He also contends that works being conducted with a tractor on his land a few weeks ago could not have degraded a dam as no dam had been built there. “The NDC don’t do their job! I clean the drains and everything in the area,” Singh said. He also said the matter now rests with the local government ministry.

On Monday Collymore said he visited the area and that the matter “is very, very complicated.” He said too he has gotten many conflicting views on the issue. About 80 houses are to be built in the scheme, he pointed out, “That’s big and the area is waterlogged; Singh is blaming the NDC and the NDC is blaming him.” The minister said he had listened to all sides on the issue and would have submitted a preliminary report on Monday while an official report would also have been made. He said that he would engage an engineer to examine the area and include these findings in his official report.
Double jeopardy
New Hope residents are in a particularly vulnerable spot when it comes to drainage. Saygan says the community’s canals are also responsible for draining water from Friend-ship village. The Friendship and New Hope kokers are in close proximity however, the Friendship koker has not been working for a number of years. In fact, when this newspaper visited the site was overrun with wild vegetation. Water from the Friendship canal is diverted into the New Hope canal and only when the tide is low it is opened and discharged.

But the New Hope koker is already plagued with other problems. According to Saygan, about two months ago the winch from the koker was stolen and he has had to use his chain block to operate it.

He said it has now been six weeks since he is operating the koker with the chain and to date nothing has been done to address the matter. He also said the outfall at the koker also needs to be cleared. Saygan said his greatest worry is that the pressure on New Hope’s drainage could spell disaster for residents in terms of flooding.

However Raghunandan Singh said before the koker can be fixed it has to be “restructured”. He acknowledged that the area needed to be cleared and security reinforced at the site. He said too although the outfalls need to be de-silted, when the koker is opened at low tide the water discharges effectively.