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.
