Following a night of intense rainfall, residents in some sections of Bartica yesterday morning woke up to “record high” flooding in their yards and some businesses have already pegged their losses in the millions.
Region Seven Chairman Gordon Bradford yesterday confirmed that several sections of the township were flooded and that he would soon be dispatching a letter to Minister of Local Govern-ment Ganga Persaud requesting the visit of an engineering team to examine the drainage and irrigation system, since he believes it is no longer adequate for Bartica.
Bradford pointed out that it is the rainy season and on Thursday night there was really heavy rainfall. However, he said, the flooding was as a result of several reasons. While the rainy season cannot be discounted, inadequate drainage and the reckless disposal of garbage also contributed to the water remaining on the land.
The Regional Chairman said the “drains seem to be inadequate and many persons are concreting their yards and making it more difficult, [for the water to drain off].”
Apart from informing the local government minister, Bradford said he would also be informing the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority (NDIA) as while the culverts and kokers may have been adequate when they were initially built they are unable to drain off the increased water.
“It would not get better but worse and we need to re-look at our drainage system,” he stressed.
He said he toured the affected areas after the rainfall and emphatised with the affected residents. Many of them were cooperative and understood that nothing could be done about their plight immediately. He called on residents to revert to the past when everyone cleaned the drain in front of his/her yard, pointing out that if this were done then many of the drains would be cleaned. Bradford also stated that the finance and the manpower are just not available for the region to do it alone.
Resident Irene Sears told this newspaper that she woke up yesterday morning and was stunned to see to level of flood water in her yard. She listed Fourth and Fifth avenues and Third and Second streets as some of the hardest hit areas.
According to Sears, she has been living in the area for the past 30 years and has never seen flood water so high even though she did acknowledge that every time it rains or there is high tide they would experience some flooding.
“We flood out bad. Right now, the salon and the snackette flood but we cannot say what damage is done because the water is so high and I am not venturing into that water,” another resident told this newspaper. The woman, who asked not to be named, said she has been living in the area for 32 years and she also has never seen floodwater so high.
“It is the highest. I never seen it this high,” the woman said, even as she counted her losses. She said the salon is operated by her granddaughter, while she operates a small snackette.
Another resident spoke about her son, who occupies the bottom flat of their home, being forced to move his household items to higher ground. He was shocked when he woke up yesterday and found water already in his house.
The woman’s husband is of the firm opinion that the problem arose from authorities not cleaning the kokers, which he said are very small and require the proper equipment to effectively clean them. He said over the years silt accumulated in many of the kokers and while there have been concrete drains built leading from the hillside to drain off the water, the kokers are unable to deal with the magnitude of water and this leaves a build-up on the land.
The family lives in Fourth Avenue and the man described it as being the “valley of Bartica,” which he said will always floods whenever it rains.
“But this is record high floodwater,” the man said, while adding that as a small boy growing up in Bartica before all the infrastructure work had been done the area was never flooded.
“I can’t recall any flooding because as a small boy that would have been like Christmas for us because we would have played in the floodwaters,” the man said.
Desiree Nurse, owner of the Grill Edge, a popular business place, related that she has lost millions of dollars. Her new freezer, a generator, gas stove and other items are under water. She said she has been operating the business for about 10 years and it has never flooded. Like other residents, she was shocked to wake up and find her business premises flooded. She lamented that it was only two months ago that she purchased the freezer. The woman operates a restaurant and a bar and she said even the music system was under water.
“The water start to go down but right now everything is in a mass of confusion and we have to start thinking about cleaning and see what we can salvage,” she said.
