Tired after 16 days of being surrounded by smelly floodwaters and waiting for relief, Dochfour, East Coast Deme-rara residents have begun putting their best efforts into helping themselves.
The residents have devised a plan to build a dam around the small community after which they will pump the water into the canals outside the dam. They have received help in executing the plan in the form of an excavator which was up to midday yesterday digging the Dochfour sideline and heaping the mud to form a barrier of sorts. When the dam is finished the water will then be pumped out.
Roy Doodnauth, a farmer in the community who has lost all his crops told Stabroek News yesterday that something has to be done. “Deh trying with the koker, but how long we go deh in this mess?” the man asked rhetorically. He explained that there was no telling if the rains would come again and the water currently on the land was going nowhere. “What gon happen if the rains fall again?”
When Stabroek News visited the Hope koker yesterday an excavator was digging in the canal leading to it, but the water still remained at a high level.
Meanwhile, across at Ann’s Grove water has resided a bit, and residents are left counting their losses. James Gooding, a poultry farmer of Middle Walk Dam, Ann’s Grove complained bitterly. A dead duck lay on top of a pen, the latest in a long line of poultry that had nowhere to go and died in the stagnant floodwater. “This water destroy me,” the elderly farmer sighed, “I just throw way three piglets.” The farmer also lost several meat birds.
His daughter-in-law Marva Gooding, who lives at the back of the same yard, also lost a large number of poultry and 14 piglets. The water is discoloured and fetid, with animal remains in it. And the remaining ducks are “swizzling” about in the water making it even worse. Residents have nowhere to go and must carry out all chores in the water. Gooding lamented that no one had visited them down at the back. “They hear backdam and they think people ain’t live here,” she said.
She said that a woman in the village took down names of persons who lost livestock in the flood but as of yesterday there was no help forthcoming.
Melinda Herod talked of the mosquitoes that are invading in droves. “If you see the children skin,” Herod said. “Is all thing in this water…latrine worms…everything.”
Junior Gilbert who lamented the lack of preparedness for the rains, pointed to the shrub-filled trenches.
Survival is the uppermost thought in residents’ minds, both in Dochfour and Ann’s Grove. The predominantly farming communities are left with no produce to sell and have expressed their worry at how they will pay bills that will come in January.
Even more worrying is the fact that cupboards will run empty and there is no money to refill them.
“We need help here,” Doodnauth said. The farmer related that “they promise we something but deh only booking names steady.”
Sandra Samad was mopping out her bottom-flat at Dochfour, as the water had subsided a bit. The woman said that in her estimation there should be a better medical outreach programme. She said that a medex and a team were in the area. However, the residents had to go through the water to the vehicles on the road and show them that they had skin rashes before they were given medicine for it. She related that a neighbour with several children had to trek through the mud and water with all of them to the vehicle before she could have received any medication. “What about if you tek in nighttime now, what you gon use?” she asked, referring to medication for diarrhoea.
Samad also talked of the visit by President Bharrat Jagdeo on Christmas day. She said residents were a bit disappointed that he went to the dam separating Two Friends from Dochfour but did not go into their community to see first hand what they were faced with.
Sewraj Balmik also expressed the same sentiments. He said that people who do not live in the area were reporting to Jagdeo about the conditions there. “How they gon know?” he questioned yesterday. Balmik said the main problem in the community was the koker and as long as that is not fixed the community will remain in its distress, hence the move to build a dam.
Meanwhile a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release issued on Friday said that the continuous rainfall over Christmas Day and Boxing Day has put more stress on the drainage but “all activities are geared to get rid of the water quickly.”
The release said Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud had indicated that emergency work has to be carried out in Region Ten on the Himara Creek because of problems that have developed.
In the meantime, in other East Coast Demerara villages such as Enterprise, Victoria and Buxton water levels have subsided a bit, but still remain in some yards and in extreme cases in bottom flats. Evident along the coast is the muddy mess the water leaves behind, the damage to carpets, rugs and floorings and the huge cleanup to be done.
Residents are sceptical about starting cleaning now, as the rain may very well come again, causing a concomitant rise in the floodwater. (Melissa Charles)
