La Nina conditions have weakened considerably over the past two months and the effects will not be as strong in the upcoming months, Acting Chief Hydro-meteorological Officer Bhaleka Seulall says.
She was speaking as the Agriculture Ministry updated the media on preparations for the upcoming rainy season at the Ministry’s boardroom yesterday. Seulall, in a PowerPoint presentation, noted that the seasonal rainfall should commence shortly. She said that there are “reasonably high probabilities”, of near normal rainfall this month while the June and July rains “are very likely to be mainly normal to above rainfall”. She cautioned that this rainfall outlook is relevant only for seasonal time scales and over relatively large areas.
There will be day to day variations within these areas. It should be noted that heavy and short duration episodic events are common during this period, she added.
Meantime, it was disclosed that $392M has so far been expended on preparations for the rainy season. According to Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth, several engineers have been assigned to Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten to oversee and monitor all drainage and irrigation works. He noted that the NDIA’s radio network is in place and pointed out that various works such as the clearing of drains and canals among others was ongoing in several regions. It was stated that $1.7B is expected to be expended this year in similar works.
As regard, the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC), Wordsworth said that in addition to the 32 monitoring staff now present a further 160 persons will be employed to enhance the monitoring activity during the mid-year rains. The EDWC was a key factor in the floods on the East Coast in 2005.
It was noted that the flooding occurred in the Upper reaches of the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks due to there being no major flood control structure to protect those areas and the only source of drainage was gravity flow through the rivers.
Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said that phase two of the Mahaica/Mahaicony/ Abary project is intended to take care of this and “unless and until that project is done those areas will always be vulnerable”.
Wordsworth revealed too that buttressing of a section of the EDWC embankment from Flagstaff to Annandale is being done. He said that they were working to achieve water flow from the conservancy towards the Demerara River and clearing of various channels and waterways is being done.
The NDIA CEO stated that they were continuously discharging water from the conservancy “in a very manageable way”.
Meantime, Persaud cautioned that with all the preparations, it does not mean that there won’t be any flooding.
“All this preparation don’t necessarily mean there will be no flooding”, he stated. He emphasized that about 44 pumps have been deployed along the coastal belt to assist in drainage. He said that monitoring has started and “we do hope that the rainy season would be kind to us”.
