Dear Editor,
I refer to recent articles in the press re the flooding in the Mahaicony supposedly caused by heavy rainfall in the upper reaches in the Mahaicony (85 ins in 7 days) and to state that the rainfall data quoted is quite abnormal and appears to be inflated.
I noticed in DC dated 4/01/08 the rainfall data was revised by the Hon. Minister to be 23 ins over the same period. The Hydromet Div. over the years has a reputation for reflecting high rainfall statistics whenever there is flooding.
As I stated before in a previous letter the problem lies squarely with the operation of the MMA Scheme and the 7 door sluice not releasing compensation water flows into the Abary River to keep the river alive forcing the Mahaicony Creek to carry not only its drainage share but the Abary as well which it is unable to do, precipitating the flooding.
Keeping the Abary River alive was how stage 1 of the scheme was originally designed to function.
To compound the problem the 7 door sluice appears to be seized up, leaking and has never been opened since its construction and hand over in 1980. As a result the entire Abary River including its mouth some 45 miles long is silted and would require a humongous operation, engineering expertise and lots of money to fix. I do not believe a river this long has ever been desilted before.
Fortunately, the 7-door sluice could be fixed since during design and construction stages I left access grooves in the walls in order to provide for future maintenance for the Armco gates and replacement of the neoprene seals.
Carrying out this work, however, should be carried out by competent workers, failing which the entire area could be flooded out.
I feel the govt. engineers and the MMA authority should fly over the entire area during heavy rainfall and at low tides and observe conditions for themselves rather than spending vast sums of money empoldering and sectioning the Mahaicony area to stop the flooding.
Hydrographic soundings of the Abary River along its entire length should also be carried out and the levels obtained compared with the ones taken before the sluice was built and the river dammed. You can then deduce the extent of the siltation.
In spite of the above I wish the govt. success in obtaining the loan to complete the next stage to the EDWC.
I doubt, however, whether the cost of US$60M quoted is enough to complete the project in view of the poor soil conditions to be encountered and the extent of the works involved.
Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Alli
