Dear Editor,
In a letter which appeared in SN of Oct 23 (‘A significant amount of maintenance work has been undertaken on the East Demerara Conservancy’), Mr Omadatt Chandan, Corporate Secretary of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) expressed the view that assumptions made by Mr Veecock, Senior Lecturer at the University of Guyana during a public presentation regarding lack of maintenance over the years to prevent flooding of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) were inaccurate, and by implication he should have been making constructive criticisms rather than grasping for cheap publicity through negative comments regarding NDIA’s investments and efforts to improve the flood control capacity of EDWC.
These remarks are not surprising since over the years Mr Chandan has been a gifted ‘spin doctor’ for NDIA, expressing views to cloud and skirt the issues rather than to elucidate them based on the facts.
The disastrous flooding of the East Coast of Demerara during 2005 showed the lack of adequate management and efficient operation and maintenance of the EDWC and its appurtenances, which was a major cause for the catastrophe since the system failed to perform at its design/optimum capacity at a critical juncture. (Mr Chandan would recall that initially at the height of the flood, EDWC denied that floodwater from the conservancy was finding its way into the frontlands and the public was prohibited from visiting the area to affirm their claim.) For instance, the Land of Canaan Relief Weir, Lama, Maduni, Cunha and Kofi sluices never made discharges at their design capacities even as of today, because of such dogged factors as clogged and silted channels affecting conveyance upstream and downstream of the structures. After 2005, NDIA with considerable foreign grants and budgetary allocations made substantial efforts, albeit in a haphazard fashion to improve the flood relief capacity of EDWC. However, much remains to be done, and Mr Veecock’s observations that NDIA lacks an implementation and concerted maintenance and rehabilitation programme to efficiently maintain and operate EDWC is evidently factual.
Mr Chandan claimed that the new northern relief channel now under construction at Hope/Dochfour will provide flood relief for Abary and Mahaicony communities during periods of prolonged and heavy rainfall. It will be useful if Mr Chandan could enlighten readers how the Hope Canal will achieve this objective, since there is a disconnect between these areas. At the same time he could provide costs for the canal and its structures, how they will be funded and their estimated completion time.
Finally, some three years ago the World Bank approved a US$3.8M loan for the Conservancy Adaptation Project. The project was put out for bids from consultants to undertake this study on two occasions. It would be useful if Mr Chandan could inform readers as to the delay and why a contract has not been awarded as yet to start this study.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
