As the water level in the Mahaicony Creek keeps rising so are the losses for rice and cash crop farmers and they are wondering how they will be assisted during this disaster.
Some of the men who worked as labourers cannot get jobs because the rice farmers they were employed with have lost their crops.
They cannot catch fish to sell or for the home because of the high water and are currently not earning an income. They told this newspaper that they “have to try” with the little savings they have.
The residents, whose lives have been disrupted, feel that it would take a few months for the water to recede completely and before they can start farming again.
By then, they said their rations would run out and were worried about how they would cope with the situation. They were also concerned that no one has visited to offer assistance and that no medical team has visited.
Chabinauth Deolall of Gordon Table told Stabroek News that he last year sold his 30 head of cattle to invest in 20 acres of rice.
After the rains came he bought three drums of fuel and started to pump water off the land. He was distressed when he lost the crop after the water kept rising following the releasing of water from the Maduni sluice.
Sundarlall Arjune of Pine Ground who invested in a rice crop for the first time said he lost everything even though he tried hard to save it. “I am a poor man and I never [got to] earn a cent. Weh me and me children would get money from.”
He said he worked hard, in the wildlife trade and saved money to invest in a tractor and a chipper and also lodged $160,000 to purchase a pump.
He was hoping to pay the remaining $300,000 with the proceeds from his rice
crop but now he has lost everything.
When this newspaper caught up with him he was returning from the coast where he had gone to visit his sister. She provided him with foodstuff for his family and to share to persons especially his workers.
He said he was suffering pains in his hands nd feet from being in the water for too long. He said an excavator was working in the area and he was able to get it to start to empolder his farm. Less than halfway through the job, he said the operator told him that the minister [of agriculture] instructed him to remove the excavator and take it “to Region Three.”
Apart from that, he said the tiles on his kitchen floor were lifting up and that the concrete foundation in his kitchen which he spent over $500,000 to fix has started to crack.
His brother, Brijlall Arjune was distressed about the loss of over 100 roots of “suckers” and that his livestock was dying in the water. He said government promised to send drugs but so far they have not received any.
Jagdeo Basdeo of Bara Bara invested in 17 acres of rice and is battling to save it by pumping water out because “if we lose this rice we lose everything.”
He is afraid though that he would lose the battle if the rain continues and “cause the dam to run over.” He said he stopped planting cash crops because of the constant flooding and got into rice farming. He is hoping for the best.
Entire plot
Other residents of Pine Ground, including Seeranie Latchman who invested in 40 acres of rice with her three sons as well as Rohan Shivdayal and Sewsankar Arjune and a few other farmers also lost 140 acres.
Seeranie has also lost all the produce from her cash crop farm such as squash, ochro, pepper and cucumber. She said too that “every morning ah picking up dead chickens and ducks.”
Dharampaul Mulchand who assists his sister, Ramrattie with her cash crop farm said the entire plot is under water. She was more worried about their 150-acre rice crop that was under water. She said her husband was pumping water from about 90 acres in a desperate bid to save that plot while the rest had to be abandoned.
Sookrajie Ramcharran, 67, said she and her husband, Putul invested in a small cash crop farm and were sad to see their boulanger, bora, ochro, calaloo, pumpkin and other produce destroyed in the flood.
At Water Dog Creek (WDC), Ramona Devi Persaud said the water has reached two feet in her kitchen and she had to start cooking on a small kerosene stove in her veranda in the upper flat.
She lost all her produce in her garden including pumpkins and plantain as well as several creole fowls. Her mother, Gaitree Bhajan, 64, was forced to pack up and relocate to the coast because the water is high around her house.
Nizam Sukhoo also of WDC said his cows were punishing in the water and he had to move them to a high spot and is hoping that they would survive the flood.
When this newspaper showed up at the home of Kapildeo Mahadeo and his wife Oma Devi they emerged from their kitchen in the lower flat in a boat. They said the water was knee-deep in the kitchen.
Mahadeo said his garden plot in which he invested $100,000 is covered in the floodwater. He was worried about where he would get the money to restart when the water eventually recedes.
He said right now there is “nothing to do” and he cannot even get to work part-time as a labourer because his employer lost his rice crop.
He lamented that the “rain alone don’t flood this place like this” and besides, he did not expect the flood to come now.
The man said too that his cows were “swimming in the water. Some have to drop; I don’t know how they would make out.” Several of his ducks swam away while his fowls are dying.
He said too that they are unable to use their outdoor latrine and bathroom.
The Mahaica creek has also been severely flooded by the release of water from the rain-swollen East Demerara Water Conservancy.
