Police could soon be called in to prevent the Sunday night ‘hangout’ on the seawall between the Russian Embassy turn to Conversation tree, in an effort to deal with the erosion and choked drains owing to a severe backup of garbage that has resulted from this activity.
“We intend to have that activity relocated back maybe between Camp [Street] and Vlissengen [Road], where it could be better managed… It’s a big problem for us we have to repair the embankment we have to restore the grass for erosion protection…and of course the garbage,” said Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn yesterday.
In the wake of the of the overtopping of the sea defence, which saw several coastal communities flooded on Sunday and again yesterday, Benn said this was Benn exacerbated by clogged drains from debris and garbage, hence the move to have the activity relocated.
“We have never been comfortable with that activity out there. That activity is damaging the embankment… We are going to go out there check who is out there and work with the police and others to have that activity relocated from there.”
He said the clogged drains in areas adjacent to the Rupert Craig Highway prevented the water from reaching the Liliendaal pump which had the capacity to take it off.
Further, he informed that his ministry has asked the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to clean the drains in the community. He said they would speak again with the city council to see what resources they could give in an effort to resolve the problem.
The minister stressed that the pump at Liliendaal was more than capable of “taking off the water,” but the clogged secondary and tertiary drains were preventing this from occurring. The drains were blocked with shells and garbage which were brought over with the tide.
Over the years the public has bemoaned the state of the seawall after the Sunday night activity. Stacks of garbage consisting mostly of Styrofoam boxes and cups and plastic bottles and wrappers are usually left behind. It was these remnants that could be seen yesterday being cleaned by the NDIA crew from culverts, conduits, kokers and the Liliendaal pump basin.
Benn said the plan would be to once again fix the lights along the new proposed area and have the vendors responsible for the areas in which they operate. “We don’t want it there. We never wanted it there. Our position is it should go back; we have put lights… The intention is to speak with the people, assign them little spaces where they have to keep their garbage in bags or receptacles at the end of their activity. We [have to] manage it better and encourage people to not just throw their garbage over their shoulder into the sea because it comes over the other side,” he said.
Benn also pointed out that while there has been criticism and questions as to why the sea defence isn’t being raised, the overtopping was an unpredictable event.
He said projects of that nature were expensive and would cost in excess of $1.5 billion for just a three-kilometre stretch. “It is not the kind of expenditure one envisages for a fairly highly unusual event for a fairly short section of the coast and which you’ll have to repeat every time the erosion front moves along,” he said.
He informed that the mangrove project will be intensified as a natural sea defence measure, as purchasing artificial reefs was also an expensive task and would not be best suited for Guyana’s sea defence.
