President Ramotar visits flood hit East Coast communities – checks drainage facilities

THE record rainfall which occurred on November 20 resulted in large swathes of the capital, Georgetown, lower East Bank Demerara, West Bank Demerara, Essequibo Coast and villages in Region 4 (Demerara/Mahaica) being flooded. President Ramotar visited several communities and drainage infrastructure yesterday to assess not only the effects of the accumulated water, but also to check on the stepped up efforts to drain flooded areas. Areas visited included Paradise and Cane Grove.

President Donald Ramotar engaging residents of Cane Grove, Mahaica during a flood check on the East Coast Demerara. Public Works Minister, Robeson Benn and Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority also accompanied the President.

The President noted that a lot of people have suffered due to the heavy rainfall, but said he was assured that the Public Works officials, and others responsible for drainage and irrigation, are doing everything possible to alleviate the problems encountered.
“We will continue to follow it to see that we bring some ease to the situation as fast as possible.”
The Agriculture Ministry today said that significant rainfall is expected in the next 72 hours that will result in flooding conditions. Sunday, it said is likely to be worse.
Rainfall records for the past 24 hours, measured at 08:00 hours yesterday show the highest rainfall of 260.0mm was recorded at Railway line, Mahaicony in Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice).
Despite a large amount of water receding after the record breaking rainfall, the team of officials which comprised, Public Works Minister Robeson Benn, Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth, and other officials and engineers were busy ensuring that all pumps and drainage outfalls were working optimally to provide relief.
Based on an assessment done by engineers following the heavy rainfall on November 20, the highest recorded in Georgetown was 186 millimetres, (7.25 inches) in a 24 – hour period.
On Thursday Benn reminded that the drainage systems located on the Coast are designed to take off 1.5 inches of rainfall in any 24- hour period, hence the reason for the significant flooding.

“We have 5 or 6 percent more than the normal rainfall that can be handled through the drainage infrastructure on the coast …given the difficulty of excessive rainfall, we expect over the next two to three days, there will still be water on the ground…we are not the only affected country, you might know that there is this low pressure system also hanging over Trinidad which resulted in significant flooding in that country,” Benn said.
Teams of engineers and officials yesterday visited all kokers and sluices in Regions 2 (Pomeroon/Supenaam),3(Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) and 4 to ensure they are functional. It was found that while most of the pumps and sluices are working, there is the issue of siltation in some areas.
Workers yesterday were cleaning garbage across city areas to ensure smooth drain off of water.

(GINA)