Jun 22, 2016 Source

Scores of residents from the Number 30 Village area, West Coast Berbice, on Monday

Residents and police officers near the blocked roadway.

afternoon blocked the only thoroughfare between Rosignol and Georgetown in an effort to get the relevant authorities to give them the attention they deserve.

Residents are claiming that as of April last the community has been inundated, and while there has been rainfall, most of the water would have been coming from the backlands: water drained from the rice fields south of the residential area.
When this publication arrived on the scene police ranks had already taken control of the situation, and traffic was flowing in both directions. There was one individual in the crowd bearing a placard. There have been no reports of disorderly conduct.
When General Manager of the MMA/ADA Aubrey Charles arrived on the scene, there was a very brief chant of, “Charles must go!” People seemed more interested in hearing what plans are afoot to bring relief and so there was normal interaction between the crowd and Charles, with some people offering suggestions as to what could be done to get the flood waters off the land.
The General Manager acknowledged that there have been acts of vandalism in the residential

General Manager of MMA, Aubrey Charles (centre), interacting with frustrated residents on Number 30 Public Road.

areas in the farmlands, where people have been damaging structures installed to regulate the flow of water and upsetting the original design of the MMA scheme. Such acts would have contributed to the unusual build-up of water in the residential area.
Similar behaviour was displayed during the recent dry spell a few months ago which saw people destroying structures to allow salt water into the irrigation system.
The water level did drop for a few days last week, but the problem still persists. The water rose again, with people still losing crops and livestock. Their yards remain under water.
Residents are claiming that having endured the prevailing conditions for over two months, and with no light at the end of the tunnel, they have been forced to take protest action so that their voices could be heard. They are claiming that the MMA is failing to deliver.
Regional Chairman, Vickchand Ramphal, was also on the scene interacting with the protestors.
Mr. Charles told the residents that the immediate action plan would be to deploy a number of pumps to pump water from the residential areas into the primary drainage canals.
The affected areas are serviced by the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development

Drains clogged by weed.

Authority (MMA/ADA) which is a massive drainage and irrigation scheme serving all of West Berbice. This network of drainage and irrigation canals was constructed by Dutch Company, Balast Needam Lareco in the late 1970s. However, only the Abary phase of the project has been completed.
The project is designed to allow farmers within the project area to cultivate crops throughout the year without depending on rainfall, and at the same time without interfering with activities of adjacent or neighbouring farmers, through a well laid out drainage and irrigation network containing a number of structures designed to allow maximum control of the water at all times by the MMA/ADA.
The Abary River has been diverted to provide irrigation water for the farmlands via gravity flow, and the excess water is released into the Atlantic Ocean, under normal circumstances via three sluices: one at Plantation Profit, one at Number Twenty-eight Village and the other at Cotton Tree.
The system was designed for the sluices to be complemented by four giant pumps installed at Trafalgar or Number Twenty-Eight Village, whenever there is too much water in the system.
However, the present situation is that while there has been no reported problem at the sluices/kokers on the flanks, situated Plantation Profit and Cotton Tree, the central sluice at Number Twenty-eight, Trafalgar, has been silted up, and efforts to desilt the outfall could be described as futile.
Of the four giant pumps installed at Trafalgar when the scheme was commissioned, two were relocated by the previous government, and the other two are out of commission.
It is quite pellucid that current attempts to bring relief to residents have been failing, and so more resources need to be deployed in whatever form necessary to adequately drain the area.