Intermittent heavy rainfall caused a breach in the Airy Hall Water Conservancy on the Essequibo Coast which left about 200 acres of rice under water up to last evening, Region 2 Chairman Parmanand Persaud said.
Persaud told Stabroek News that the breach was reported yesterday to the Regional Administration by rice farmers after they found their crops submerged.
The Regional Administration has since dispatched workers to repair the breached area of the dam, which Persaud said should have been completed by 18:00 hrs yesterday. With the breach repaired, he continued, the excess water covering approximately 200 acres of rice fields is expected to be gone by this afternoon.
The Agriculture Ministry yesterday warned that villages along Essequibo and in the Pomeroon would experience heavy rainfall and possible flooding.
Persaud said that while there is hardly any flooding in the villages along the Essequibo Coast, heavy rainfall over the last few days caused the conservancy to break. He said though, that villages along the Pomeroon have experienced some flooding.
But the Pomeroon and the Essequibo Coast are not the only areas that are advised to watch out for possible flooding. “Areas for attention include Black Bush Polder, and villages of Lower and Central Corentyne (and) Canals Polder”, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
Checks with several of these Berbice villages revealed that while heavy rainfall is being experienced, very little to no flooding is occurring. Residents in Number 65 Village, Bath Settlement, Bush Lot and Number 12 Village, when contacted yesterday, all confirmed that they are seeing intermittent heavy showers, but that they are not flooded. One woman who resides in Bush Lot Village said that her community has very good drainage and so water brought by rains drain off very quickly.
However, heavy rainfall was expected to continue last evening into today, and the Agriculture Ministry is urging residents in the aforementioned areas, particularly areas in Regions 5 and 6, to take precautionary measures against flooding, and to call hotline numbers “227 – 5049,223 – 7291, 643 4369 (SMS ONLY) to report any flooding or breach.”
