The type of mud available in Dantzig, Mahaicony, is affecting the construction of the earthen flood prevention dam, Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Frederick Flatts has said.
“This area has been under water for two months so the mud is very soft and it is not compacting as it should. This is why the dam is lower than the height we had said it will be built to,” Flatts told Stabroek News on Saturday.
Stabroek News reported earlier this month that a secondary eight-foot dam, between Fairfield and Dantzig, Region Five, would be built to ease the suffering of residents, who had been hit by recent spring tides which had flooded their homes and destroyed crops. The residents of Mahaicony became vulnerable as a result of breaches in the sea defence along Dantzig to Fairfield. The three-kilometre stretch along the shoreline is currently being impacted by major erosion of the foreshore and depletion of the mangrove fringe.
Expanding on the challenges faced, the NDIA head said that some areas where the sea defence was breached remain exposed and the excavators have to work during the low tide.
“The problematic area is Dantzig. We are trying to get the works done there but we have to work during low tides,” Flatts observed.
In other vulnerable communities such as Broom Hall, Carlton Hall, Fairfield and Columbia, the construction of the dam has been completed. Works have commenced in the neighbouring communities, Flatts added, while pointing out that 11 excavators are working in communities.
Last week, residents highlighted that the dam being built is not what was promised and that at the current height, it would not prevent them from being flooded during the next high tide.
According to the residents, the secondary dam, which was supposed to prevent flooding from recurring in their communities, is only four feet high, which they say would not serve the intended purpose.
Speaking to the Department of Public Information, Flatts had previously said that a secondary dam would be built between Fairfield and Dantzig. “The secondary dam would be very high, about 8 feet high above the land and about 12 feet top width. It’s a significant dam. That dam will start at the sea defence to cross the Bellamy Canal coming about 800 feet into the land, then go parallel to the sea defence and come back in at Fairfield,” he was quoted as saying.
Two separate spring tides have recently devastated the lives of residents of the area, leaving them to cope with unexpected damage as well as being flooded. Hundreds of acres of rice fields, and animals, were lost as a result of the flooding. Losses are said to be in the millions.
