Another flood

Flooding and the risk of flooding have become ingrained in the collective psyche of Guyanese in the aftermath of the 2005 Great Flood and subsequent inundations of varied magnitude and length. The anxieties have been heightened by the lack of reliable weather forecasting and the catastrophic failure of drainage infrastructure and conservancy undermining. Any administration, whether at community, regional or national level, that is delinquent or indifferent to flooding does so at its great peril.

The good news for this government and the city administration is that except for the intertidal period, Georgetown, in particular, the central business district and the wards up to Sheriff Street have seen far improved drainage after heavy rain. It would mean that the $120m which the city says it has spent to prevent flooding, along with major assistance from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) has improved the state of drainage canals to the extent that accumulation is rapidly disposed of via kokers when the tide is out and by the various pumps.

The bad news for the government is that judged on Thursday’s heavy rain, the parts of the city east of Sheriff Street and villages farther up the East Coast did not drain and were left to wallow in foetid water.

A poignant representation of the plight of the villagers on the East Coast was captured on the front page of Saturday’s edition of Stabroek News. This photo showed two pupils of the Vryheid’s Lust Primary School carefully wheeling a bicycle across what looked like a Cassandra Crossing into the school building as deep water menaced from below. This is not how children should be entering school.

From Thursday afternoon, floodwater began rising inexorably until there was a virtual deluge in some villages and communities along the East Coast. No one in authority seemed to know or care; not the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils that were elected in a blaze of optimism in 2016, not the Regional Democratic Council, not the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI), not the Ministry of Communities, not the Ministry of Agriculture, not the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and not the Civil Defence Commission (CDC).

Residents were left to watch in horror as unexpectedly the water rose on Friday even though there was blazing sunshine and no rain. Yards and ground floors were blanketed in water, livestock killed or put at risk. Something had obviously gone wrong with the drainage network. Either key pumps had fallen out of operation or impounded water was gushing into the flooded area. By Saturday, the situation had not changed. To the contrary it had worsened and the rain began to fall again. The anxiety and anguish of householders deepened. Social media was awash with complaints of the unresponsiveness of the authorities to the flood plight. The