Regional Chairman for Region 10 Kuice Sharma Solomon is to convene an emergency meeting with the Community Development Council (CDC) Monday to address the issues of drainage and irrigation in the town of Linden.
This was prompted by extensive flooding of several communities around the town after heavy rain yesterday.
Central Mackenzie, Kara Kara, West Watooka and Rainbow City at Mackenzie and sections of Christianburg, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Allies at Wismar, experienced severe flooding of the streets, homes and drains after a few hours of torrential rain yesterday.
Solomon in the company of Region 10 Member of Parliament Vanessa Kissoon and Interim Management Committee (IMC) councillor Gordon Callender visited some of the flood-hit areas yesterday afternoon.
At the home of a Kara Kara resident it was evident that water damaged several of her household appliances and furniture. Like several other homes in the area, the surrounding drains were clogged with vegetation causing the water to over-top, flooding their yards.
Residents of Rainbow City also experienced this problem. “More than that look this happening because they not clearing that main drain and de Creek (referring to the Cockatara creek),” said a resident. He explained that the creek is silted with stuff running off the tail-ends pond on from mining operations on at Washer Pond. “Dis aint no kinda a rain here dis afternoon and look how we flood out here,” said Winston, a rainbow City Resident.
At Wismar it was a double whammy for residents since while they were experiencing an all-day power outage, the rains came and caused flooding of several homes and streets. “Is whole day we in darkness then now with de rain we flood and what de hell we can do, no light till now (approximately 7:00pm) de can’t put it on back,” said an angry Wismar resident.
Solomon said that an emergency meeting will be convened with CDC leaders to discuss the issue of placing priority on cleaning of drains in the communities across Linden. According to the Region 10 Chairman, earlier this year at a meeting in the presence of Chairman of the NDIA Walter Willis the demographics of Linden were highlighted justifying the need for main drains, creeks and canals to be cleaned thrice annually.
Referring to the flooding, Solomon said, “We hope that with this type of occurrence [the NDIA] will see what we were talking about and realize the need for the cleaning of these areas at least three times a year.”
He added that for 2012 there were no contracts awarded to the CDCs in Linden and that the NDIA had proposed a $50 per ft payment arrangement to the CDC which was rejected across the board. “They were accustomed to being paid more than that in the past. I will have this meeting on Saturday and hope they can come to some arrangement so we could get things going,” said Solomon.
Yesterday’s floodwaters receded shortly after the rains ceased at Central Mackenzie while in other areas homes, yards and some streets remained waterlogged up to press time.
