A spring tide and heavy rainfall yesterday left sections of New Amsterdam under several feet of water.
A weather system that passed over Guyana over the past 48 hours was blamed for the persistent rainfall, which flooded sections of the coastland yesterday.
While Georgetown experienced heavy rainfall during the morning hours, New Amsterdam and other communities in its proximity felt the brunt of it. As much as 10 inches of rainfall were recorded in areas within Region Six, which were affected by a spring tide which is in effect until Saturday.
The tide rose around 4:30 am yesterday and was expected to cause more flooding yesterday afternoon but residents told Stabroek News last evening that the main waterways in the area levelled off much to their relief.
In parts of New Amsterdam, many had woken up to find their yards and homes under several feet of water as the Berbice River had spilled over its banks with the tide. “…When I looked out my street, there was a lot of water coming, full speed and like, in a split-second, it reached towards my door and I tried to block it off,” said Narita, a resident of Lot 55, Stanleytown, who said it was first time the water was up to her knee in her home. “…Every single thing in my home—all appliances, a lot of stuff—my fridge, CPU, battery backup, everything gone, my husband’s tester,” she added.
The areas hardest hit were Stanleytown, Main Street West and Vryman’s Erven, in addition to the Greenhouse farm, the Department of Education, and several businesses that had to remain closed for much of the morning.
New Amsterdam resident and PPP/C MP Faizal Jaffarally stated that he received a call from another resident around 4:40 am yesterday indicating that their home was under water. His subsequent checks revealed that the areas from Strand and Stanleytown were under over five feet of water. “I met some fishermen at the New Amsterdam Stelling and they said that there was an extremely abnormal high tide, which was not expected and caused overtopping, compounded with the heavy rainfall we had this morning, affecting a number of areas,” he said.
Jaffarally cautioned residents to expect high tides again today and to take the necessary precautions so that losses would be kept at a minimum. The water should have receded in a timelier manner, he said, but the garbage clogging the drainage system was an impediment. “…Sometimes we, as residents, need to take responsibility because what has happened there has affected us,” he said. “…We need to dispose of our garbage in a manner that does not affect the free flow of water whenever we have overtopping, caused by the high tides and excessive rainfall, so the water can recede off-land very quickly,” he added, while calling on municipality to get its act together.
But Deputy Mayor of New Amsterdam Harold Dabydeen said despite the efforts of the municipality, people continue to dump their garbage in the drainage system. He urged the government to speed up the move to ban Styrofoam boxes and plastic bottles. “We gotta come back to paper bags like in the old days,” he said. He also extended an invitation to Jaffarally to examine the municipality’s garbage collection activities and noted that when the new subvention comes, the council is planning to get another tractor to boost garbage collection.
New Amsterdam has seen several dumpsites ‘established’ around the town. Residents dump garbage, such as plastic bottles, Styrofoam boxes, old furniture, and old clothes, along the streets, roads and alleyways in the town.
Jaffarally urged residents to burn their garbage and “properly secure them… and business places should go that extra mile and pay a couple of dollars to take the garbage to the dumpsite and I want to urge the council to take their responsibilities seriously.”
With the council receiving taxes, he emphasised that it is the municipality’s responsibility to ensure the garbage is properly disposed. “…The council needs to engage in an educational programme to educate residents to inform them about the difficulties we can face when we face situations like these,” he added.
The Republic Road canal, which was in need of cleansing, was cleaned a few days ago by the Region 6 administration. But Jaffarally said that while the government has been pitching in to assist the town in many ways, the township and its leaders are not maintaining the works.
Dabydeen, however, stated that the municipality is “doing a lot” with little resources to clean drains but infrastructure erected by residents has also been stymieing cleaning. “If you look at some buildings and fences, they cause a lot of problems for residents and the residents have to correct themselves. They contribute to this… I am very sorry for the people who have losses but there’s nothing we can do and we apologise, but the relevant authorities need to put their acts together,” he said.
In addition, Dabydeen said sea defences are needed. “We want a sea- defence, because with the constant swell of the ocean and climate change, we will steady have high tides and we need some measures, so it can’t come on land… a sea defence is needed and the Berbice River needs to be dredged,” he said. It was dredged about a decade ago, according to him, and there is a lot of siltation there. “It needs to be opened up… also the West Bank of the [Berbice] River is also being affected, so the water just spill over to the land and we don’t know what will be the results for today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday),” he noted.
Dabydeen also criticised the manner in which the weather service acts in relation to informing the public prior to unusual high tides. “We do not get any reports from authorities to tell us when we have high tides, so we can make preparations for the New Amsterdam market people and residents,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Georgetown, several areas, including Albouystown, South Ruimveldt and Sophia were inundated after the showers during the morning hours. However, the water levels in those areas receded during the afternoon, when the rains subsided.
Today wet weather conditions are forecast over the coastland and sections of regions 8 to 10. Southern sections of the country are expected to experience light to moderate showers today.
According to online weather database weather.com, there is a 60% chance of rainfall with thunderstorms over the next 24 hours across the coastland and several inland locations.
