Persistent rain over the past two days coupled with a higher spring tide has left several villages along the southern coast of Leguan under several inches of water and residents are blaming the contractors who carried out work on the sea defence sometime ago for doing “shoddy” work.
When contacted yesterday afternoon for a comment Region Three Chairman, Julius Faerber told Stabroek News that he has not received any reports of flooding on the island but said he will look into the matter. He said however, Leguan and Wakenaam are usually flooded during high tides as a result of problems with the sea defence.
Residents told Stabroek News yesterday that the villages of Henrietta, Success and Phoenix have been under water since Tuesday and noted that the water level has been rising. Babita (only name given) a resident of Phoenix told Stabroek News yesterday that the water level had passed her knee around 3 pm yesterday. When contacted last evening the woman said the water had receded by a few inches but it was expected to rise early this morning. She said the water had reached as high as three feet in sections of her village on Tuesday.
While the villages in the area are usually flooded during the spring tide, the resident pointed out that the rising waters over the past three days have impacted significantly on the sea defence system.
“We always punishing from flood and nobody coming to help” she exclaimed with anger in her voice. She said a number of families in the area have been forced to take precautionary measures as a result of the rising water. The woman related that many families who rear poultry have been deeply affected by the rising water, noting that animals have been left to fend for themselves.
Another resident stated that the area is normally flooded during high tide but with persistent rainfall their problems have been compounded. The man said sometime last year a contractor had carried out work on the sea defence in their area but left the work halfway. He said residents learnt that the contractor encountered problems with the authorities as regards payments. He said since then, regional officials on the island have been “patching” the sea defence with sand bags.
When this newspaper visited the island in April the residents had pointed out to this newspaper that its sea defence needed to be completely overhauled. Stabroek News had observed several sand bags placed on the sea dam behind a resident’s home. The La Bagatelle resident had noted that the sand bags were used to patch the sea dam but pointed out that a company had done some work on the sea defence system in that area “which was more concrete”. The residents told Stabroek News yesterday that the authorities should contract that construction firm to fix the sea defence system.
They said that they are usually promised a better sea defence system as well as other aspects of infrastructural improvement at elections time.
They told this newspaper yesterday that the issue needed to be highlighted so that the authorities could have a complete understanding of their difficult experiences during high tide instead of constructing a proposed airstrip on the island.
