-contractor stopped cleaning ov
Residents of Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara say the flooding they are experiencing is a direct result of the main drainage canal not being cleaned in preparation for the rainy season.
Stabroek News was told that the contractor who was tasked with clearing the canal ceased operations over non-payments.
Jacoba Constantia-Conservancy Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Chairman Dhanraj Bipath, yesterday explained that the annual contract for the cleaning of the canal was not awarded to the contractor for this year. Bipath said he was carrying out works on a bi-monthly basis and the contractor had started cleaning the canal in November but stopped after he was not receiving payments. The canal is maintained by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and not his NDC he stated. Stabroek News was unable to contact the NDIA for a response.
“It is because there wasn’t regular maintenance we are in this situation today. After we noticed the water was being accumulated in yards we had to start self-help work on Christmas Day and the next day because nowhere was open to offer us help,” the NDC chairman explained.
An excavator has since been deployed and is currently removing moss from the canal, to allow for the water to be drained off. One resident told this newspaper that the moss in the water grows rapidly and as a result constant maintenance is important.
“This polder here is a farming one so what you would notice is the moss growing at a faster rate because of the fertilizers being used by the farmers,” the resident explained.
Despite this, Bipath said that the current section of canal that is inundated would be the last to receive relief, since it is at the lower end of the community.
Yesterday, the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) revisited the community and handed out 200 sanitation hampers to residents. The CDC had visited the community on Thursday to assess the situation.
The Water Users Association of Canals Polder to Goodland and Minister of State Joseph Harmon were also a part of the distribution exercise and gained a firsthand look at what was happening on the ground.
He, too, noted that the flooding resulted from the canal not being cleared and maintained in preparation for the rainy season. “The koker is working well. The pumps are working well; it’s a question of keeping the canals clean. As you come in from the front all the way down you’ll see that the canal is … very clean, but we have to keep it clean and we have to have in place a system that ensures that the canal is kept clean and that