Residents of Black Bush Polder, East Berbice have suffered losses to rice and cash crops and while the floodwater has started to recede in most areas it has remained stagnant in sections of Johanna and Yakusari.
Sanjeev Basdeow, 40, of Johanna told Stabroek News that since the rain started last weekend the water has not receded from his farm. He is distressed that his four-and-a-half-acre ochro and red beans farm has been destroyed.
He said he invested a lot of money and after the flood he would have to start all over again.
That was his only means of earning a livelihood and he needs help urgently to get the water off his land.
Residents of the two polders told this newspaper that the water was not receding because a section of the outfall channel needed desilting.
Contacted, Regional Chairman, David Armogan admitted that the water remained on the land because the outfall channel was blocked-up and said excavators were currently clearing it.
He said too that other outfall channels in areas including No 52/74, No 43 Village, No 51/Good Hope and Bush Lot are silted up and that emergency work are also in progress.
According to him, most of the coastal areas have dried off after pumps – provided by GuySuCo – were deployed. The region also repaired the doors of sluices that were not functioning.
They are now operating to bring faster relief to the farmers.
He said “we had to act fast to get things under control” and that “hand cleaning is going in most of the internal drainage system.”
Residents of Yakusari said they started to pump water out of their cash crop farms but after the rain continued they were forced to abandon their crops including cucumbers, bora, cabbage, sweet pepper and pumpkin.
Along the roadside, especially at Lesbeholden, residents’ yards were dry except for those that were low. A few rice farmers said they lost a few acres of their crop and were trying desperately to save the rest.
They also lamented that their children are unable to attend school because of the deplorable condition of the access dams.
According to them, the children have to carry their heavy school books along the dam and it is very “risky. They can slide easily on the muddy dam. You don’t know which is dam and which is drain; everything in one.”
Nadir Ali, 69, said his farm with 200 “bearing papaya trees” is waterlogged and he would lose all of them. The man who also has hundreds of other fruit trees said they are under water and he is afraid that he may lose them as well.
Ali has also planted 120 acres of rice with his three sons and said they are at different stages and all under water.
Rohini Basdeo who plants a cash crop farm with her husband, Rohan said their one-acre cabbage crop and 300 roots of muskmelon have been destroyed. They were worried about how they would be able to service their loan at the bank.
The couple whose yard was also surrounded with water said their ducklings were “dying one by one.”
