As stated in the November 23rd Sunday Stabroek editorial, the deep flooding of Georgetown on November 20 was “a painful commentary on government’s inability to think ahead, consult the best skills available and manage projects of a certain technical complexity.”
As if the flooding from that day wasn’t enough, there was a repeat of this on December 23rd while shoppers in Georgetown were busily going about their Christmas errands and the business community was looking to get into the black for the year. The insurance industry has already spoken of the severe risk to flood insurance portfolios from these repeat inundations and one wonders what the private sector – particularly the Georgetown-based businesses think about what has been happening and the government’s role in it.
Truth be told, no self-respecting businessman would stand up today and support the usual government foolishness that the city council is responsible for the flooding. To do so would be to demolish the reality of the all-powerful central government which has gone as far as shutting down Parliament for more than six weeks now. While it has toyed on many occasions with taking over the city council, the government is no doubt aware of the political and other ramifications of such a move. So its strategy is simply to ensure maximum interference with the council and to prevent it from striking out on its own in improving drainage capacity and to cope with flash flooding.
In normal democracies, the PPP/C would have long been voted out of government on the single issue of its inept handling of flooding not only in the city but on the East Coast, Corentyne and West Demerara extending all the way back to the Great Flood of 2005. As has been stated many times before in these columns, the city council has nominal purchase in these matters. Its resource base is poor, its systems haphazard and there has been no democratic renewal since 1994, the latter problem now solely as a result of the government’s refusal to let local government flourish.
With 2015 fast approaching, all stakeholders have to demand of this and any new government a comprehensive plan to address defence from flooding, whether it be from heavy rains, swollen rivers or over the seawall. This government has no such plan. Its response has been a hodgepodge of initiatives with no overarching superstructure.
Whenever there is a rain-fuelled flood, the lead spokesmen of the government are quick to recite that coastal Guyana cannot absorb more than an inch and a half of rain in 24 hours. This has been the same refrain for the last 22 years of uninterrupted PPP/C governments. Yet, it is the responsibility of governments to weigh the causative factors for such chronic problems as flooding and to make concerted efforts to address them. Aside from its responsibility to invest in expanding the ability of the country to fight super storms, if one were to examine the Georgetown dilemma, it would be clear to even the most obtuse that the holding capacity from 40 years ago is no longer valid. Canals have been mothballed, concreting has greatly reduced absorption and the efficiency of gravity drainage has diminished. The city evidently needs more holding capacity, rigid attention to primary and secondary drains in particular and most importantly, additional capacity to pump water even at high tides. It is an investment that is certainly beyond the capacity of the council and the neglect of this need represents a serious abdication of responsibility by this government.
For the rest of the coast, particularly the lower East Coast the flood relief options need to be underpinned by hydrographic flow studies and expert assessments, some of which have been done. Ten years after the Great Flood, the centre piece of government’s efforts, the costly Hope Canal, is still to begin functioning. It is left to be seen whether this will be another giant white elephant. The canal is meant to relieve the pressure on the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) but there is a school of thought that had the Conservancy been better maintained, its internal channels kept clear, its holding capacity optimized and drainage to the Demerara River made more efficient there may not have been the need for a canal to the Atlantic. Indeed, prior to 2005 the conservancy performed the task without widespread flooding until patently poor maintenance left it and its dams greatly vulnerable.
So instead of an integrated drainage solution that encompasses Georgetown, the Mahaica and Mahaicony rivers, the strengthening and maintenance of the EDWC, the invigoration of local government to better manage sluices, rigorous attention to sea and river defences, citizens have been treated to a medley of distinct projects, some like the Surendra pumps acquisition of dubious credibility and value. While Agriculture Minister Ramsammy has boasted that pumping capacity has more than doubled over the years, flooding in communities all along the coast remains a serious problem.
It is the citizenry of the country who pay the highest price like those on the East Bank who suffered from the collapse of the Peter’s Hall koker in October and those on the Hope Estate on the East Coast who battled floods for weeks in November and December. As one of the Hope Estate farmers, Ray Doodnauth perspicaciously said to Stabroek News about the government’s water management “Whenever it rains is flood and when is sun there is no water.”
Stakeholders should begin demanding from this government and other contenders for office a well-defined flood control plan which has benefited from the input of recognized experts with a financing plan attached to it.
