Last Sunday morning lines of houses from Kitty to Liliendaal became like chains of islands in an oceanic archipelago. They had company on the West Coast, where the angry brown waters of the Atlantic trespassed on the land space of several villages, isolating homes. This unheralded intrusion affected thousands of citizens, the larger proportion of them located within the boundaries of greater Georgetown.
Those houses closest to the seawall sustained an assault not just from the salt water, but from sling mud, which deposited itself on gardens, clung to concrete, blocked drains and was carried into bottom flats by the waves. Electrical equipment was destroyed; books and documents were inundated beyond salvage; furniture was soaked; cars were damaged; walls were stained; businessmen’s stocks were lost; and a range of plant-life (although hopefully not the better established trees) from the humblest weed to the carefree bougainvillaea bush faced poisoning by the salt. Not to be forgotten was all the garbage the sea brought with it and dumped unceremoniously either inside or immediately outside residents’ yards.
Now this disaster came about not because of a breach in our sea defences, but because of the overtopping of the sea wall, which still remained intact after three high tides had done their worst. It is to be noted that the denizens of Pradoville 2, located further east than the outer limit of the waves’ incursions remained unaffected. More’s the pity. It is not that one wishes any such adversity on them, it is simply that only when those who rule over us have direct experience of these kinds of extreme challenges, can one indulge any hope of a speedy search for a solution.
And a solution is needed, because this is not the first time that this has happened along this same stretch of the East Coast, although the overtopping on this occasion was far worse than before. On January 14 this year, the sea from Kitty to Turkeyen invaded terra firma and caused serious flooding. In that instance our report of the following day quoted Minister of Works Robeson Benn as saying: “We have a tide of 3.15 metres and on top of that tide we have riding 1.2 metres of waves and those are what are coming over the seawall.” That, we were given to understand at the time, was something of a freak occurrence.
This time around, Minister Benn told reporters that windy conditions in the Atlantic propelled 1.5 metre swells riding on 3.11 metre tides, over the sea defences. He described it as a “fairly unusual event,” and also told reporters that, “In general the prediction from NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] wave models did not indicate an extremely abnormal wave climate for this spring tide period.”
Now that we’ve had two “fairly unusual” events of this kind within the space of a little over three months, anyone who lives between Liliendaal and Kitty thinks the “unusual” is showing every sign of becoming the ‘usual.’ And who is the Minister to pronounce otherwise since this last adventure of the ocean was neither predicted nor, apparently, predictable? Who can say, therefore, when this is next going to occur, let alone how often or for how long?
Mr Benn informed the media that this stretch of coast was in the erosion cycle, which in itself would suggest that the sea hasn’t finished with the inhabitants of this portion of coastline yet. Mr Malcolm Alli, writing in the letters column of this newspaper on Friday said he was the engineer who designed this section of seawall in the 1970s, and judging from what he had seen on the internet, “it is obvious the foreshore has eroded appreciably, resulting in the severe overtopping causing flooding and damage to the earth embankment.” He went on to say that engineers should have been carrying out soundings to determine the level of the foreshore and come up with solutions to build it back.” However, he alleged that this could not be done because there was no hydrographic section any more.
So what, the citizens of this part of residential Georgetown want to know, is the government prepared to do to protect them? Not much, it seems. When responding to criticism about why the sea defences had not been raised, the Minister said that projects of that nature were expensive costing in excess of $1.5B for just a three-kilometre stretch. “It is not the kind of expenditure one envisages for a fairly highly unusual event for a fairly short section of the coast and which you’ll have to repeat every time the erosion front moves along,” he said. The layman might be tempted to retort why was the government willing to waste so much money on the useless Marriott Hotel, but was not prepared to expend anything very substantial on protecting a long swathe of residential Georgetown.
Mr Alli, however, did provide some support for the Minister in this regard, although for entirely different reasons. He seemed to suggest that the concrete coping cannot be raised higher (or perhaps much higher), because if this were done it could cause “rotational slips.” Not all engineers, however, would seem to agree with him.
Where building back the foreshore was concerned, the Minister told the media that purchasing artificial reefs was an expensive undertaking, and was not best suited for Guyana’s sea defence. What he proposed was that the mangrove project would be intensified as a natural sea defence. No problem with that if it works, but what everyone who has the misfortune to live between Kitty and Liliendaal knows is that there is no mangrove project under way along their span of seawall; it is a considerable way further along the coast to the east. Will Minister Benn tell them if that programme therefore will really help them?
The Minister did say the seawall lime would have to move, because of the damage it was doing to the defences and the garbage it was generating, and yesterday, to the relief of residents, it was announced that this removal would be put into effect immediately. The Ministry of Works and the government have been aware of this problem for a long time, but did nothing about it, any more than they did anything about the Celina Atlantic Resort, which has now transformed itself into an even more durable structure on the Kitty foreshore than was the case before.
What the Minister did say was that the water would have been carried off quickly by the Liliendaal pumps if garbage had not been blocking the drainage system. What he should be reminded about is that when this happened in January, the Liliendaal pumps could not be used initially because they were choked with debris, and just like this time around, the flow of the drains and trenches was blocked by garbage. When asked last Sunday why the ministry had not cleared the garbage, he responded that that was the job of the city council. By Monday a little reason had supervened, and he amended this to tell reporters that the ministry would speak again with the council to see what resources could be given in an effort to resolve the problem.
What is the matter with the government? This should be a priority, and if they know the city council lacks the workers, the resources, the organization and the willpower to do what is necessary, then bypass them altogether and put a regimen in place that deals with the problem. There is no room for the blame-game in a situation like this.
Having said that, while it is certainly important to ensure that the water drains off quickly when it comes, is Minister Benn telling a substantial number of Georgetown’s residents that nothing can be done about these regular inundations in the first instance? In January the public was informed for the first time that this portion of the city’s coast was in the erosion cycle, but the authorities did not go on to explain what this implied. Are we to conclude, therefore, they are of the view that nothing could or should be done and the inhabitants should manage as best they can on their own?
If they are, then they should understand what is involved. They are to all intents and purposes writing off a three-kilometre stretch of residential Georgetown, because repeated flooding by salt water and sling mud will kill every growing thing in sight, turning yards and parapets into a brown wasteland. It will make the area in the longer term uninhabitable, because lower flats will have to be abandoned, and cars parked off site. And this, it must be noted, is in our capital city to which the government in one of its fantasy modes hopes to attract tourists.
Why has the administration not called a meeting of engineers to look at the whole problem of the erosion cycle and the city, and what the options are for corralling the ocean on its side of the wall, except in genuinely rare instances. And what happens if in some years’ time the erosion cycle moves along ‒ perhaps even to the government’s precious Marriott Hotel? The sling mud would really clog up the casino tables there.
Finally, why is the opposition silent on this issue? Are Messrs Granger and Ramjattan so snugly high and dry in their abodes that they have nothing to say about the possible ruination of three kilometres of the capital’s residential housing (plus some businesses, not to mention the Ocean View Hotel)? And what about the impotent city council? Does the council’s writ not run as far as University road any longer? Even if it can’t do anything on its own account, it should at least have inspected the area and have some suggestions to put to the government. If the government, the opposition and the council are living in hope that if they do or say nothing it won’t happen again, they are fooling themselves.
