Floodwaters in the Pomeroon River have started receding but residents are expecting to be flooded again as the sluices close, leaving the water without another escape point—a situation that has been recurring over the past two weeks.
The farmers are blaming the drainage and irrigation authorities for the heavy siltation of the Pomeroon River mouth. Minister of Agricul-ture Dr Leslie Ramsammy and Junior Minister Ali Baksh along with a team visited the area and saw the situation firsthand, farmers also said yesterday, while adding that nothing is being done to relieve them of the water that has been there for over two weeks. They depend solely on farming for their livelihoods and now that their crops have been flooded for over two weeks, they are wondering how they will survive.
The farmers are awaiting dry ground to determine the full extent of their losses and when Stabroek News visited the community yesterday, most of them were at the Charity Market Centre selling whatever produce they were able to save from the floodwaters while predicting a rise in the prices of vegetables.
Among the affected farmers at the market centre was Gwelda Gill, of Grant Hope, Lower Pomeroon, who said she was inundated for about one week, during which all of her livestock died. She was unable to estimate her losses.
When asked if the team of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture had visited her area, she said she was yet to see them but when they do turn up they should expect a feisty welcome.
“I de wondering fuh know if Pomeroon people don’t get rain and is only Berbice and Essequibo the rain falling, because nobody nah come fuh ask you if you loss anything,” Gill said.
When told that a team had been dispatched to the area and was visiting the affected areas she said, “If I didn’t come to Charity I wouldn’t know that a team in the area and when they come I will be waiting fuh them.”
Farmer Wendell Daniels of Unity, Lower Pomeroon, said that he had been flooded for over three days. He added that he purchased three pumps for the flooding to drain his 40 acres of farmland that cost him $2 million per pump and approximately $50,000 in diesel to operate them to drain his land per day.
He said, “The Pomeroon River mouth needs to be dredged and because of the high siltation we are not getting pull in the river and the water comes and lodges in the farms.”
The residents also blamed the irregular operation of the kokers in community and also the two non-operable pumps at Cozier Canal, Lower Pomeroon, referring to them as ‘White Elephants.”
Although many were adamant about cultivating again, they said this would depend on them being assured of safety of their crops, which has not happened despite past experiences.
Dawn Young, a Martindale farmer, said she was visited by ministry officials and promised two drums of diesel to operate a pump to drain her land and clean a canal that is next to her land. She has already received one drum of diesel and will receive the other during the course of the week. She added that it will cost her approximately $300,000 to have the area cleared and back to normal.
Other areas that were under water were Grant Buxton, Grant Opposition, Covent Garden and Cozier Canal, among others, and the farmers of these areas said that they lost everything that they planted, including cash crops and ground provisions.
The villages along the Pomeroon River have experienced severe flood conditions in the past, caused mainly by excessive rainfall as well as the effects of spring tides. In 2010, a number of farmers along the banks of the Pomeroon River lost dozens of acres of produce. Ground provisions and cash crops as well as coconuts are predominantly cultivated in the area.
