Workers from the region and central government were last evening battling to close a new breach in the Airy Hall, Region Two Conservancy which has swamped a large acreage of rice and threatens nearby villages.
Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud yesterday said that the original breach in the rain-swollen conservancy was repaired around 6 pm on Sunday, but that another breach occurred around 3 am yesterday. He said at a press conference that all the gains made since yesterday were washed away.
As a result, Airy Hall has seen a lot of waterlogging. The residents though,
have not really been affected. Persaud said that only the rice fields have been submerged so far but he said that if the situation is not remedied soon Airy Hall and the surrounding villages will be seriously threatened.
He said that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, the Local Government Ministry, the Ministry of Public Works and the Regional Admin-istration, as of yesterday morning, were cooperating to fix the breach.
Four mini excavators were dispatched to Region 2 yesterday to assist in the efforts while a pump was dispatched to Charity, which is also seeing some flooding.
When Stabroek News visited the area, loads of sand were being taken from a site to the broken dam in an effort to fill the gap. Rice farmers and cattle rearers told this publication that they suffered significant losses because of the flood that they have experienced for the last five days.
The breached conservancy dam which is in the backlands of the Airy Hall area, has caused over 200 acres of rice fields to be submerged and a number of homes to be flooded. Houses located near to the rice fields were completely surrounded by water and inaccessible.
Geawantie Persaud, a resident of the area said that this is the first breach she has witnessed. “I never see something like this before. I ain’t get flood here but them people who does mine dey things at the back get it bad. I hear that people lose plenty chicken and cow,” she said.
Mr Persaud (only name given), a rice farmer, said that his losses are great since he not only lost rice crops but livestock too.
“I’m a rice farmer and all meh rice deh under water. I had 40 cow and all of them drown. This thing ain’t easy,” he lamented. He added that it has been five days since the water has been on the land. “A three days now since them fixing this dam and deh can’t done. We get good contractors here but them ain’t want give them de wuk. This region does wuk with family. If me is you family then me gon get wuk. Is that’s why this wuk can’t done.”
Other rice farmers are concerned about their crops as they had just ‘pelt’ paddy late last month. Stabroek News was told by chicken rearers that they had to take their chickens to family and friends along the Airy Hall Public Road to keep them until the water went down.
The contractor for the works was not present at the site when Stabroek News visited but Jared Persaud who works with him said that they hoped to complete all works on the broken dam by yesterday.
“We started work here three days now and we have seen much progress. For now we are doing something temporary and we will start the permanent job right after here is filled. We had to build a complete dam here because it was narrow and the level of water was up to the dam but we hope to complete the temporary work in the next two hours”, he said.
Some kitchen gardens were affected by the water and cows were left stranded on some high spots in the flooded area. Being the first breach in the area, residents were unprepared for the floods and are hoping that the water recedes before more damage is caused.
Heavy rain has pummelled the region over the last few days.
