Dear Editor,
In response to an article on the East Demerara Water Conservancy (‘No breach, overtopping of conservancy…’ SS 11.1.09) based on a visit of the press, to the said conservancy conducted by S La Fleur on Saturday, January 10, 2009, it must be stated there was no admission of mismanagement of the conservancy by me as this is not the case.
The facts are that during the trip and while the party was travelling along the Annandale Water Path which is a recently rehabilitated internal channel, information was passed on to the press to the effect that the channel had been recently cleared by the removal of silt and heavy vegetation in order to improve the storage capacity and increase the discharge to the western outlets of the East Demerara Water Conservancy.
I want to reiterate that at no time was the conservancy ever mismanaged as reported in the Stabroek News. It is with careful management of the conservancy that the integrity of the entity and its embankments have been maintained during the present rainy season. At no time did I admit to anyone that there was mismanagement of the conservancy, neither was this matter alluded to by anyone during the visit.
Yours faithfully,
S. La Fleur
Secretary to the Board
East Demerara Water Conservancy
Editor’s note
The Sunday Stabroek report said the following:
“… members of the media were taken through the Annandale channel – one of the canals cleared by the EDWC following the 2005 floods. La Fleur said that for several years, this canal had been blocked up by vegetation and silt. And according [to] the secretary, there are several canals that were allowed to be blocked up. He said that the EDWC Board has already cleared some and is in the process of reopening others.
“When asked why this was allowed to happen, La Fleur said that there clearly was mismanagement by the authorities. However, he added that previously the conservancy was functioning well without these channels being opened and as such the authorities might have… ignored those which were blocked.
“But he said that since 2000 there has been a marked increase in the rainfall over the country and consequently the importance of these channels has been realized.”
We stand by our report. However, the headline was misleading and we regret this.
