With heavy rainfall over the last few days, there has not been any report of severe losses to crops in Region Five although some riverain areas were flooded.
Regional Chairman Bindrabhan Bisnauth told Stabroek News that the areas affected included Hyde Park, Esau & Jacob, Governor Lyte and Mora Point in the Mahaicony Creek.
There was also flooding on the right bank of the Mahaica River at Broken Water Land and farmers had to use tractor-driven pumps to drain their fields.
Some areas along the coast also experienced flooding including No 28 and No 29 villages, known as the ‘basin’ and Foulis, West Coast Berbice.
Some sections of Ithaca were also “submerged” but the water receded quickly after the koker was opened.
Bisnauth said that “no effort is being spared to bring relief to residents.” According to him, the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary-Agricul-tural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) also assisted in the relief efforts. “MMA was doing some work at Burma Road Line Top area and they had to abandon that work to clear two cover dams from the Burma main drain,” he noted.
That, he said, helped to “create a free flow of water from the empouldered area to the Abary and Bellamy, Mahaicony sluice.”
Bisnauth said too that the MMA-ADA is irrigating the rice fields and that has also compounded the problem.
The authority has “taken a decision to close all the secondary regulators, so no water from the conservancy would flow into the farming areas.”
