IT DOESN’T TAKE A SCIENTIST TO SOLVE GUYANA’S FLOODING PROBLEMS
From the Diaspora…
By Ralph Seeram
On my recent visit to Guyana I was “hanging” out with my friends in New Amsterdam at a “rum shop”. We had a roadside view, thanks to an extension of the premises to the road. We were sitting over a main concrete drain which was about one foot deep. I found it odd; nostalgia stepped in. You see, I grew up in the area, and I recalled the concrete drain was four to five feet deep back then. I am seeing visions of old Uncle Dabit with his long broom sweeping that very gutter in that very spot. Uncle Dabit was part of a team that was dedicated to cleaning the drains, gutter and trenches in New Amsterdam back when I was a “small boy”. In those days there was no flooding in New Amsterdam or the type of flooding Georgetown and the Coast have been experiencing this week. Social media especially were “flooded” pardon the pun with pictures of a flooded Georgetown, the water was not discriminating residences from business. All were affected. The consensus seemed to be “rain set up”, Georgetown flood. There is enough blame to go around, everybody pointing their fingers at each other but themselves. So who’s to blame? It’s the government, the municipality and the residents themselves. The government needs not to create any new infrastructure to solve this problem. The infrastructure is already there, problem is they have been neglected for decades, by the PNC and now the PPP government. The solution is so simple; clean the drains, gutters and canals; it is simple as that. We all know Guyana is below sea level, so the water does not drain in the rivers or ocean 24 hours a day. That is where the canals and drains and gutters come in. You see people think of the canals, gutters and drains as only to drain water. What is lost on people is that they serve a double purpose, it’s not only to drain water but they also serve as a reservoir, a catch basin if you will. When it rains, the water accumulates in them until the tide is low for the kokers and sluices to open for water to drain in the ocean or rivers. But what has happened over the years, the trenches, canals and drains have been neglected, silted or blocked up completely. So I fail to see why people are surprised that the city is flooded. Residents who throw their garbage in them also add to the problem. Recently when I was in Georgetown, I was in the Kitty area, where some trenches which serve as main drainage were overrun with thick grass and garbage. I passed by the Kitty Market and Police station and was sick to my stomach, literally sick. I felt like throwing up. The drains were blocked, filled with stagnant and filthy blackish water. Don’t let me tell you about the stench; it was unbearable. It’s a disease outbreak waiting to happen. The businesses in that area can do much to help tidy the area. If I was a consumer in Guyana I would not go shopping in that area. The businessmen in that area, just like most businessmen around the country, feel they have no social responsibility to keep their environment clean, healthy and attractive. They feel like it’s only the Government’s responsibility to keep the drains clear. If the government agencies make a concerted and sustained effort to clean all trenches and drains on a proactive basis, this problem can easily be solved. It is as easy as that. But what I find is that Government agencies are more reactive rather than proactive. Last year I attended a wedding. The wedding party had to leave Kitty to go LBI, East Coast Demerara. Driving along the road along the seawall I could see the homes on the right under about two feet of water. On the way back the road was blocked and traffic was diverted to the Railway Embankment. I could not help seeing several excavators clearing the canals for the water to drain faster. So what was wrong with this picture? Here is the government reacting to situation, if the authorities had cleared those canals on a steady basis there would have been no flooding. That is what I am talking about being proactive. Everything helps. If residents take pride in cleaning their environment – keep the drains in front of their yards clean, dispose of their garbage properly, the drains will not be clogged. One of the problems is when there is a serious flood it is not the government that suffers, not the government that loses. It is the residents and the business community that suffer. The older folks of Georgetown will tell you that Georgetown never flooded “when rain set up”. So why is it being flooded now? Sometimes population growth has an impact on infrastructure such as drainage. We cannot make that argument in this situation, as Guyana’s population has remained stagnant at around 750,000 people since “I was a small boy”. Here in Florida which experiences heavy rainfall, they have a simple solution. Most communities have retention ponds and some of these are like lakes. So when there is a heavy downpour these reservoirs collect all the excess water and drain later. The canals, trenches and drains are Guyana’s reservoirs. If they are silted, over run with grass and garbage, where do you expect the excess water to drain? Into yards and businesses of course. One can easily come to the conclusion that the drainage system was better a hundred years ago than it is in Guyana today. Ralph Seeram can be reached at email; ralph35@hotmail.com and Facebook.
