-after sluice door breaks
Ithaca residents suffered major losses when a sluice door broke away and flooded the community yesterday, swamping cash crop gardens and destroying livestock.
The sluice door broke away around 2 am and flooded the community while residents of the West Bank Berbice village slept unawares. Officials in the region rushed to the area to oversee repair works being carried out on the door after receiving a report about the flooding, but up to press time last night residents were under inches of water following the high tide.
Within hours of the swamping the damage was severe. Hundreds of chickens were killed in the floodwaters and cash crop gardens were wiped out completely. Residents were visibly disturbed when Stabroek News visited last evening and they repeatedly asked who will refund them.
Residents were also concerned about health supplies in the area since the Ithaca Health Centre was flooded out and was inaccessible. Many called for medication to treat fevers and skin rashes; concern was particularly expressed in relation to the children.
Regional Health Officer, Venus Smartt told this newspaper that the Ministry of Health provided her with flood kits, which she distributed to residents in several areas yesterday. Smartt said that she would return today to assess the situation and later supply the area with additional kits.
Jennifer Wood, a resident said she woke up and found the water in her yard but dismissed it as merely rainwater. She later changed this view when the water started rising and residents became vocal about the situation.
Between residents Diane and Sharon Saul, close to 100 chickens died in the floodwaters yesterday; both women said that they need to be compensated because the livestock was a key source of income.
Sharon Saul said that her public service salary is so meagre that she was forced to start a small business on the side.
“I would like to know who will refund me”, she asked. For her and many others in the area the flood caught them off guard and at a time when business was likely to boom for the holidays.
Voldeen Edwards, a single mother who supports her children on a cash crop garden, summed up her losses as “everything”. She suffers from diabetes. According to her the business is all the family has and now they have nothing.
Janice Moore, another resident said she lost her livestock and kitchen garden. She is now fighting to save her cows, which are being sheltered a few feet up under her home. Moore fears that if the situation is not addressed quickly, the cows may die from cramps.
Other residents like Joseph and Merlyn Arthur had to relocate furniture because of the rising water. The flood water has now settled in the downstairs of their home. They too, had chickens that they were planning to sell for Christmas, but are now left without any.
Ithaca residents had in the past experienced flooding in the backlands where they had previously suffered livestock and cash crop losses, but the area has never had such a serious flood in years according to one resident.