Dear Editor,
During today’s heavy rainfall in the West Berbice area, I visited the sluice at D’Edward during low tide level to observe its operation. Two of the three doors of the sluice were open and discharging floodwaters from the façade drain effectively despite signs of back-up.
I inquired from the sluice operator (SO) as to the reason why the third sluice door (southernmost one) was not open at a time when optimum discharge was required.
He replied that floating grass was being trapped upstream on the sluice pier and also on the southern embankment, thereby creating an obstruction and a clearing problem for him. Therefore to make life easy he eliminated the problem by closing the third door. He also stated that severe erosion was taking place on the southern embankment of the façade drain abutting the sluice, and in order to slow down the process before the adjacent roadway collapsed, he took the initiative of closing the third door.