Wismar residents urge speedy fix of koker door

Wismar residents affected by the recent floods are calling for the koker door to be fixed in a speedy manner so as to avoid a reoccurrence.

Two weeks ago, residents told this newspaper that they woke up to flooded surroundings due to the absence of the koker door, which had not been in place for the past year.

Asked why the koker has been without a door for the past year, Regional Chairman Renis Morian said, “[The Ministry of] Public Infrastructure gave a contract to do all the koker doors… a resident stopped the work. We [the regional administration] knew after the fact that the koker was without a door. What he should have done was come to the RDC [Regional Democratic Council] to validate what was being done.”

Town Council workers preparing items for distribution to residents in Linden who were affected by the recent floods.

While residents say that there is no flooding at present, they are calling for the door to be fixed quickly before they are met with another episode of it. “Right now we ain’t flood out and the water gon down since last week but we want them to hurry and fix the door because if the tide raise again is more flooding fuh we,” one resident of First Alley told this newspaper yesterday.

Another resident said, “The door needs to be fixed now. It is like they wan we flood again. Is over a year now deh ain got no door on de koker.”

Last Thursday this newspaper had reported that the residents would be getting some relief the following day. “By Friday it should be fixed. The biggest challenge however is the high tide, we are experiencing extremely high tides. The water is too much… Engineers travelled to Linden yesterday and the matter is one of top priority,” Morian had told this newspaper when contacted for an update on the situation.

Yesterday when this newspaper spoke to the regional chairman, he confirmed that the door had not been fixed and that “the only relief is that we are not in the period of high tide.”

He further informed that mobilization was currently underway and at a meeting with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority on Tuesday it was decided that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will take over the work on the door.

Following the flooding, Linden Mayor Carwyn Holland had issued a call for assistance for residents of the town who have been severely affected by flooding. According to Holland, the flooding experienced recently was the worst the region has seen in years. He recalled that there had been severe flooding in 1988 but not to the magnitude of the recent innundation.

When contacted for an update yesterday, Holland said the Town Council was able to provide assistance to several residents. “We went into several areas including Silvertown, First Alley, Second Alley, Third Alley, Speightland and Amelia’s Ward and we gave out bleach, Jeyes fluid and Pine Sol to the residents,” he said.