Local Government Minis-ter Norman Whittaker yesterday sought to blame negligence by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) for major flooding after recent torrential rainfall, while the City Engineer told councillors that the city simply did not have the resources needed to address critical drainage and irrigation problems.
Whittaker told a news conference that his ministry had failed to put enough pressure on the City Council to adequately deal with maintenance of flood prevention mechanisms prior to the flooding, which has been a recurring problem for years.
His declaration came on the heels of a recorded 183mm of rainfall on Thursday and was made during a press conference held yesterday to update the public on the Ministry’s work in regards to the state of flooding within the country.
Whittaker, however, stated yesterday that drainage work conducted by the Ministry helped to alleviate the highest recorded rainfall level in decades.
“When we had the great flood of 2005 with rainfall of about 166mm, that was at the highest.
If you compare that with now, where we are at about 20mm higher, it could not be that the improvements that we did over the past three months did not have a positive impact on that. The drainage work we did provided more storage to store more water. The drainage work and the vegetation work that was done did allow for faster outflow of water,” he said.
However, Whittaker noted that water levels have not been receding as desired in the city.
He explained that the current drainage system is designed to remove about 1.5 inches of water within 24 hours. However, recent levels were as high as 7.6 inches of rainfall. “The lower areas will certainly take longer to recede,” Whittaker said.
As a result, the Ministry has determined that 3 bigger pumps must be installed in Ruimveldt, Kingston, and Kitty. This decision, Whittaker said, was taken due to the volume of water and not the ineffectiveness of present pumps. “The need for the extra pumps come out for the need to have a faster flow…had it not been for the garbage and siltation we would’ve had a faster flow,” he said. These pumps are yet to be sourced.
During his presentation, Whittaker stated that while most of the pumps and sluice doors within the country are operational, there are some that are either under repair or are not working at all.
He also said efforts to have the floodwaters recede are being stymied by siltation and garbage build-up, not only at sluice mouths but within the internal drains and canals in the city. In some cases, the water in the canal is being diverted into another to provide some measure of relief.
When questioned by Stabroek News as to just why repairs on pumps and sluice doors along with desiltation exercises were only now underway, Whittaker stated that the responsibility rests with the City Council and not with his Ministry.
“That is the council’s responsibility. Public Works does support by helping with the main canals,” Whittaker said before adding, “We, as a ministry, we facilitate, we oversee, we ask the council to do what they’re supposed to do and staff will tell you that this Ministry, in preparation for the rainy season, we get on to all the municipalities and NDCS [Neighbourhood Democratic Councils] to remind them and ask them to run their checks to ensure that this is done.”
Whittaker further said that these municipalities and other councils should be ensuring that the desiltation of canals and drains are “a core service” that ought to be provided year round and not “a day or a week before the rainy season starts to do the work”.
However, he said, his Ministry had failed insofar that it had not “climbed on the back” of the City Council to push for timely maintenance works.
Not enough resources
But City Engineer Colvern Venture told councillors at a meeting at City Hall only a limited amount of work could be done due to the amount of available resources. Nevertheless, he said major affected areas were being examined.
Venture noted also that works were proposed but could not be fulfilled with the council’s budget. He, however, remained hopeful that they will get what is needed next year.
He noted that efforts to manage the drainage for the streets of Georgetown began two weeks ago with work at nights on Regent Street. The decision to work in the nights was due to less traffic traversing the street and the area was chosen due to extent of economic activity seen on a daily basis.
He also mentioned that two excavators were deployed in face of the current flood situation.
Earlier in the meeting, concerns were raised when councillors were told that the engineer, who was absent at the time, was in the field trying to locate one of the machines.
Venture also mentioned that although pumps may be operating the city may still experience flood due to its design. The tide also plays an important role, he noted, since when the tide is high the water cannot run off the land.
In response to concerns by councillor Oscar Clarke that outfalls are clogged and nothing is being done about it, Venture said they do not have the necessary equipment to deal with it. He also said that at some of the outfalls, there were fishing boats stationed that were preventing the outflow of water.
Clarke observed that if the outfalls are in order, it will be much more effective than the pumps in removing the volume of water from the land.
Meanwhile, councillors lambasted the government’s $500M clean-up campaign, while lamenting the use of millions of dollars spent and nothing major is being done to address the critical condition of the city.
The area of priority for spending in terms of drainage and irrigation was said to be due to poor judgment in managing tax payer’s money, while councillors lamented the millions of losses suffered by citizens, owing to the flooding.
One councillor said that all the streets in Cummings Lodge were flooded and she was a victim. She claimed that the work being done in the area by the Local Government Ministry is a waste of time and she referred to it as slap dash.
Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, referred to the work done by the Local Government Ministry as “cosmetic surgery” and she noted that unnecessary work was done rather than addressing the major issues, like digging and clearing of the drains rather than just cutting the weeds. She said that it is a waste of taxpayers’ money to spend five hundred million dollars just for cosmetic work.
Chase-Green identified the work done at Meadowbrook and Mandela Avenue as sloppy.
She also mentioned the strain that the health sector will be placed under to manage water-borne diseases, which many people suffer during flood. Chase-Green questioned whether an action plan was in place to handle an epidemic in light of the diseases which could arise from the flood and said an action plan should have been in place in the event of an emergency situation.
Councillors decided to make available disinfectant and bleach to victims of the flood. The items will be available for distribution by next week.
The City Hall meeting went on in the absence of acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba along with the Director of Solid Waste Management Walter Narine, who were summoned but were said to be were in the field working to address the flooded city.
Meanwhile, Whittaker said that a team being headed by Narine had been working along with the Ministry to provide support with machinery and equipment.
Solid waste was identified as a major concern, Whittaker said, with about 90% of cleaned waste being Styrofoam boxes and plastic bottles. “It is people who put that there, it is Guyanese who do that,” he accused.
The Minister further stated that businesspersons are “the biggest contributors to waste” and appealed to them to desist from giving their garbage to “social rejects” who dumped them “anywhere and everywhere.” He added that the volume of garbage seen in canal and drains obviously indicates that the source of the garbage is commercial.
He went on to urge the business community to demolish concrete structures such as large bridges which deny access to cleaners. “You will see clear evidence that whilst there is free movement of water as the water recedes in most places, there is evidence of blockage in other areas. This happens in places where people have these large concrete drains and it is difficult to get under there to do the kind of clean-up work, to do the kind of desiltation we wish to do,” Whittaker said.
