Regional officials say major funding is needed to arrest the erosion of several areas in Wismar, Linden, even as the situation threatens some homeowners in the aftermath of torrential rainfall on Wednesday.
The rain, which started shortly after 2pm, swept through the town, causing severe flooding. The hardest hit areas were Lower Kara Kara at Mackenzie and Silvercity at Wismar. To access the areas on Wednesday evening, one had to be equipped with long boots to trek through waters which were as high as five inches on the roadways and ten inches in most yards and homes. In Lower Kara Kara, most farms were flooded.
Residents said that they have never experienced such extensive flooding in those areas. Some opined that the cause is linked to the washing of sand from the hills while others blamed the poor drainage work being done by drainage and irrigation workers. Several bordering areas of the hills, which sit above several communities at Wismar/Christianburg experienced extensive erosion at several points. Water, which ran off the road and through drains, resulted in serious breaking away at some points. At one point the fence of a range apartment was barely left standing after the heavy waters caused the area to break away. Several passageways between the two areas were also extensively eroded and approximately a dozen houses are being threatened. The water that spilled off the hills had also caused extensive flooding in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Alleys, Poker Street and other areas of Wismar/Christianburg.
In an interview, Senior Superintendent of Works for Region 10 Carlyle October explained that “extensive funding” would be needed to arrest the erosion in the affected areas.
According to him, there is very little that the regional administrative could do at this time. “What we are hoping is that with some funds available we would be able to redesign some sections of that drain to accommodate the heavy runoff from the land to create a large junction box so that the velocity of the water can be broken and it could be trapped there and build up and then gradually be discharged along that drain. There isn’t thing else that we can do at this point in time to arrest the erosion because this would require extensive funding which we don’t have at the moment,” he said, while making reference to a newly constructed drain at Wismar Housing Scheme/Wismar Hill.
October urged residents whose homes and properties are situated in the eroding areas to be alert and to do whatever they can to avert a major catastrophe should there be another heavy downpour. He said that experience shows that residents come together and do the needed cleaning and clearing of drains to allow better runoff of water from the land. “In the areas where there are structures along slopes of hills, my advice to them is that they should be very watchful because there can be mudslides and they can affect these buildings and structures and these can cause serious damage to property and also life. I am advising that they should be on the lookout in the event that there is another heavy downpour,” he emphasized.
A team of engineers from the Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) unit were deployed to Linden on Thursday, following reports of the serious flooding and erosion that took place in Linden on Wednesday. The team, accompanied by regional officials, conducted a walk-through of all the hard hit areas. According to October, it was observed that most of the water which came down from the highland areas was responsible for the flooding along the foot hills. This, he said, was caused by the shallowness of the Wacanabau Creek, which is in dire need of digging.
The Creek runs from uphill in the victory valley area and extends down to the Demerara River. He said that the original depth of the creek is approximately 6ft but over time it has “silted up” and is currently at approximately 2ft in many areas. “Because of this, the volume of water could not have been discharged as it should have been.
So what we found is that the water sped back inland along the creek bank and this created a lot of havoc for residents in those areas. We found that in many areas the drains could not have accommodated all the water and a lot of it splashed over the top causing erosion to take place,” October explained.
According to October, the Creek would have to be dug and the exercise would also require community assistance. The region also hopes that the National Drainage and Irrigation Board would step in to help address the problem.
Meanwhile, regional bodies are reviewing their local D&I programme to rearrange some activities to accommodate works on a short term basis before the next downpour. “Our programme is structured to cater for rainfall during the May-June period and during December[’s] inclement period. We have completed most of our D&I works for this imminent period and with the balance of money that is remaining in the programme, we will see how best we can structure it to complement some of the unprogrammed activities that we are now faced with. We are hoping that the D&I board would respond in a timely way and we would be able to commence our work in these areas as early as possible,” October said.