Boats main transport
By Sara Bharrat Photos by Jules Gibson
Dochfour, a village of struggling East Coast Demerara farmers in the vicinity of Ann’s Grove, has been under more than two feet of water for the past eleven days.
This is the same amount and in some cases more than it saw in the 2005 Great Flood. Residents have been moving about Dochfour in their boats; a feature reminiscent of the last flood.
Hope, what little of it villagers had of earning enough to tide them through the Christmas season, has been washed away by the foul brown floodwaters. Their farms upon which they depend for financial support have been washed away and most of their livestock have perished.
When Stabroek News visited that area yesterday afternoon, Ravendranauth Deonauth a resident and farmer escorted this reporter around the heart of the village in his boat. The water, Deonauth said, as he used a long piece of bamboo to push and steer the boat, has been in the village since the heavy rain two Tuesdays ago.
Garbage, scraps of wood and dried coconuts could be seen floating in the rusty brown water which smelt of decaying meat. Regardless of this, several residents were seen walking freely through the water without protective gear on their feet.
“Even if dem wear long boots de water going to get in it,” Deonauth explained.
However, the foul smell coming from the water was far from being the worst of their problems. Snakes, centipedes and other insects, residents explained, have been invading their homes ever since the water began accumulating in the area.
Caimans, Deonauth told Stabroek News, also lurked in the waters at night. Walking in that water after sunset, the man said was something never to be done but the Seebalak family was forced to do this a week ago.
Deonarine Seebalak, a 21-year-old man, was bitten on the toe by a poisonous snake while making his way home from his family’s farm. The young man was bitten while it was still daylight but by the time he made his way home it had become dark.
By that time, relatives explained, Seebalak has become weak and they were forced to lift him and wade through the floodwaters to get him to the nearest vehicle so he could be transported to the hospital.
Just behind the Seebalaks is a small wooden house which is home to farmer Premanand Sukhnandan, his wife and three children. Sukhnandan, trying to inject some humour into their dire situation, told this newspaper that they were “catching floating dried coconuts for dinner”.
With a smile on his face Sukhnandan explained that all his crops were washed away and he barely has anything left with which to feed his family.
“I serious…you see dem dry coconut floating around…we does pick dem up and grate dem to make lil shine rice. We eat that or we eat nothing at all,” the farmer said in a voice that masked his distress.
Latrines and bathrooms are also flooded and like many other coastland residents the Dochfour people must stand on their steps and bathe. The rain which has wrought havoc in their lives is now their only source of water.
Jennifer Doris, a single mother who lives in a small one-room place with her four children has lost most of her meat birds. The meat birds, Doris said, was the only thing she had to make some money.
Jason Headley, another livestock farmer, told Stabroek News that he has lost many pigs to the flood. The man said that all the dead animals were taken to the community’s cemetery and dumped there.
The farmers of Dochfour seem ill-equipped to deal with a disaster of this size. Many do not know what steps they can take to save some of their livestock. Most of the animals are left to find their own way to dry ground, failing which they perish after being in the water for days.
Residents said they have made futile efforts to contact various ministries. Two government officials, they reported, had visited the area on Thursday but they have not yet received help in any form.
“Imagine me ah try to call that Ministry of Agriculture hotline number since last week and I ain’t getting through,” Deonauth said. “Like de damn hotline get cold.”
Chairman of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) for Region Four, Clement Corlette told Stabroek News that the “Ann’s Grove situation is under control” and “it’s just the heavy rainfall from last night [Thursday] that caused the water level to go up.”
Corlette and Lionel Wordsworth, Chairman of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) were present at the Belfield/Nootenzuil North koker yesterday afternoon overseeing maintenance operations.
The koker was opened and the channel leading out to the Atlantic Ocean being deepened. A check around the Belfield and Nootenzuil North area revealed that the water had receded.
Residents from both areas had previously complained that the koker had not been used since the 2005 floods. According to Corlette, the koker has a defective wrench. Further, he explained that koker maintenance was difficult.
“Sling-mud would normally build up and choke the koker outlets. The recently cleaned out Greenfield and Hope kokers are silted up already,” Corlette reported.
Meanwhile, Wordsworth said that up to yesterday the level of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) was 57.75 Georgetown Datum (GD). The EDWC has not reached its full capacity.
Floodwater levels have risen in Haslington, Bachelor’s Adventure, Buxton, Annandale, Good Hope, Mon Repos, Felicity and several other villages along the East Coast.
The situation in Dazzell Housing Scheme, Paradise has not changed. Residents are still faced with inches of stagnant floodwater which threatens to enter their home. The community still has not been given the health services it had previously demanded.
Yesterday many children could be seen walking through the water despite the health risks.