GT flooding
As if the year hadn’t already doled out enough man-made woes to visit on the Guyanese citizenry, the heavens decided to open up on Friday and add an element of pluvial misery to the mix. Prolonged and intense rain was reported right along the coast, but in terms of population centres, it was as usual in the nation’s unfortunately sited capital where the floodwaters caused disruption on the largest scale. Undaunted, residents nevertheless sloshed their way in boots or barefoot along the watercourses which passed for streets, in dogged pursuit of Christmas bargains. It was not that they had become inured to flooding; it is just that from long and bitter experience they knew there was no guarantee of either the water receding or the weather improving on the following day ‒ Christmas Eve.
In terms of flooding, this is the first real test either the new government or the new city council has had. While there have been showers – some of them quite heavy – in the previous rainy seasons, these have not been of sufficient duration to turn Georgetown into an equatorial Venice. On this occasion, the city received about 4 inches of rain between 2 am and 1 pm on Friday, according to City Engineer Colvern Venture, and the drainage system is only designed to handle 2.5 inches in a twenty-four hour period.
The problem was compounded by the fact that this occurred during a spring tide, when the length of time the sluices can be open is much reduced. According to a release from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, under normal circumstances sluices can be kept open for up to six hours, but with the spring tide this is reduced to three.
The capital during its long period of neglect under the previous administration had been prone to frequent bouts of flooding, the most notorious being during the 2005 Great Flood, in which not just rainfall, but the East Coast Demerara Water Conservancy also played a role. However, the APNU+AFC government since coming into office made an issue of the fact that it was taking measures to alleviate floods, and ensure that the water drained off quickly. And this last is the key issue.
The city has undergone a major clean-up this year, and while it is still a lot more sanitary than it has been for years, there are nevertheless problems in localized areas. The previous government always cited as one of the reasons for the sustained flooding the habit of residents (and not just in Georgetown) of throwing garbage into the canals and trenches. But that still continues in some places; the photographer on Friday took a shot of the Ruimveldt sluice which was struggling to function against