Dear Editor,
There is a disturbing pattern of neglect, abandonment and misuse of the drainage systems and public reserves in most of the communities on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara, and this has led to ugliness, garbage pile-up, flooding and overall deterioration of the standard and quality of these communities. All across the East Coast we see the inter-lot drains, gutters and trenches either filled in, overgrown, serving as garbage dumps and not draining into any larger system. We also see reserves serving as dumps for garbage and builders‘ waste or misappropriated and enclosed by homeowners or commercial entities. It is not surprising therefore to see many of these communities flooding within 10 minutes of rain. There is apparently no will by the authorities to address these problems, but only a constant stream of excuses, abuse and finger-pointing by the likes of Roger Luncheon, Gail Teixeira, diverse Ministers of Local Government and Robeson Benn.
The government itself is contributing to the problem as, for example, the recent work for the creation of a four-lane highway from Better Hope to Montrose that has seen the filling in of the trenches along the road and replacement by a two by two concrete gutter. Enquiries to the office of the REO, Region 4 about the alternative provisioning for drainage that was served by this trench were met with the response that there had been no discussion with the Regional Democratic Council about the filling-in of this drain and they were unaware of any alternative arrangement. Another example of the problem is the (mis)appropriation of the public reserves at the corner of the East Coast Embankment road and the road east of the Conversation Tree road where the trench and the shoulder of the embankment road have been filled in and appropriated by the developer.
I would like see a full public disclosure by the authorities on the matters of local area drainage for the East Coast area in the first instance, and opportunities for public debate with respect to the continuing deterioration of the drainage situation on the East Coast Demerara. I would also like to challenge the media with undertaking a continuous elaboration of the problems including perhaps a daily picture of a blocked drain. The situation is horrible and we cannot go on with the same superficialities and lame excuses from the authorities.
Yours faithfully,
Kanvar Persaud
Better Hope,
East Coast Demerara,
Guyana