By Jeff Trotman
Environmental Consultant Samuel Wright feels that enough money has been spent on drainage in Linden over the past ten to fifteen years for the town to have an efficient drainage system but the money has not been spent effectively.
He said one of the main causes of ongoing drainage problems in Central Mackenzie whenever there is heavy rainfall is that the people, who have engaged in planning drainage within the town, have not spent enough time in understanding the natural drainage patterns of the town.
Wright, who was born and bred in Linden before obtaining a Masters Degree in Geological Engineering has served as consultant to a number of hydrological projects, including the sinking of wells in various regions of the country and the current Inter-American Development Bank funded multimillion dollar potable water rehabilitation project in Linden being implemented by the Guyana Water Incorporated.
He said the natural drainage pattern in Linden is based on the creeks. Therefore, the creeks should be cleaned from the mouth going inward because clearing the creeks from inland as is currently done, does not allow for the free flow of water into the Demerara River. He said: “Some of the standards set for clearing the creeks are not based on hydrological flow. [They] just go and clean the creeks, that’s all.”
According to Wright, the main drainage in Central Mackenzie are the Cockatara and Hymara creeks, as well as a small creek that flows behind the Mackenzie High School that drains Retrieve. He also said that there was a creek between the Mackenzie Post Office and the former Blair’s Building and another one that flowed behind Church’s Chicken, which has been blocked to allow for urban development.
He explained that just as how the system of veins and arteries along with pores serves to free the body of human waste, swamps and creeks form a natural drainage and irrigation system for the land. He highlighted that a cursory observation shows that on both banks of Linden, the mouths of creeks at the Demerara River are at regular intervals.
Noting that about five years ago over $40 million was spent on drainage in downtown Linden to arrest a situation of regular flooding, Wright said the drainage system was designed by LEAP and a contractor was hired from Georgetown to implement the project “but the way it was built, it did not meet the criteria for the project”.
He said an important criterion of the project was the construction of covered drains to allow for vehicular parking off the streets. “But the covered drains are not at the level of the roads.” He said the concrete covers of the drains are about two and a half feet lower than the road, making it difficult for vehicles to access intended parking spaces. “And then, you have to drive over mud to get to the space,” Wright added.
Stating that he conceptualized the design for the drains, Wright, said from the moment the drains were constructed, he saw clearly that they were not built according to the scope of works. He said he informed the then Regional Chairman, Mortimer Mingo and Orrin Gordon, the Linden IMC Chairman about the deficiency. He said that he also informed them that the manner in which the drains were built would, over time, cause degradation of the side of the road.
“I know they wrote the Ministry of Finance because the money was coming through them,” he said. “The job was stopped. But the contractors said, later on, that they were told by the ministry that the people in Linden cannot stop the job. So, they came right back and completed the project.”
Depression
Noting that because the covers of the drain are lower than the road, Wright said they naturally act as drains during heavy rainfall causing a buildup of silt and grass on the covers, making it difficult to prise the covers off the drains to be able to clear the drains. He also said the concrete covers should have been built with steel hooks to make it easy for them to be prised open by an equipment such as a backhoe.
He also said there should have been portions of grated steel covers to allow easy access to the drains. “They did not put in the gratings,” he said, adding that recently, some people, who were clearing the drains did not remove some of the concrete slabs, “so, you have a patch work of concrete, grass, concrete, grass”.
He said even after completion, the project could have been salvaged by spending an additional $10 million to raise the sides of the drains and compact them so that the covers would have been lifted. He also said that during the project, makeshift bridges were placed at certain premises such as Jack’s and Nelson’s Drugstore, but were never properly replaced.
Two directions
He said the drains from Mora Street to Crabwood Street were built to flow in two directions – east and west. “But when we started thinking about the drains locally, we did not pay attention to that. So in digging the drains, sometimes we removed the concrete,” Wright said.
Referring to his days of racing wooden and paper boats in the Manni Street drain when it rained during his growing up days, Wright said the water flowing to the west went to the river through a series of side drains but at a certain point one could have set one’s boat and instead of flowing west, it would be taken east towards the Daggerad Avenue main drain that flowed southward, emptying in the Cockatara Creek.
Noting that the main drains have not been maintained, Wright elaborated that when a certain business was built it caused a blockage to the main drain. He added that the contractor involved in the ongoing GWI pipe laying project have placed additional blockages on that main drain “so, as one gets closer to the bauxite plant, it is difficult for the water to enter the Cockatara Creek.
Wright also observed that the changed configuration of housing has contributed to flooding in the community as a result of a number of smaller drains that were in place when the company controlled the community have been removed as residents obtained their own yards, enclosed them and filled the drains.
Conceding that there has not been widespread flooding in Central Mackenzie recently, Wright said he can only recall the Republic Bank being the most significant business place to be flooded. He, however, sees Pine Street as “still a problem … because it still has no proper drainage”.
He reiterated that the main problem is that the RDC and the Linden IMC do not have a drainage plan for Linden and they fail to understand that creeks are the natural drainage for Linden. “So, a lot of times, they put up structures that actually block the creeks. Or, they put up structures at the mouth of the creeks. If the creeks are going to be the main drains of the town, it means, therefore, that at the entrance – that at the outfalls into the creeks – where the water enters the creeks are the most critical. But most times where the drains enter the creeks have been blocked or have fallen apart, or are not maintained so the water cannot go anywhere,” he said.
