Just after Albouystown residents finally got relief from days of flooding due to intense rainfall, the community was under water once again yesterday after the door to the Sussex Street koker malfunctioned.
Despite being closed, water was seen flowing from underneath the koker door sometime around 4pm and soon afterwards Albouystown was flooded.
When Stabroek News arrived at the koker, attendants were trying to remedy the situation but to no avail. It was suspected that the door might have been tampered with.
Dexter Hatton, a pump attendant with the Ministry of Public Works, told Stabroek News that he received a call about the koker and in turn contacted the ministry to send a machine to press down the door.
“I get a phone call say the koker break away but I tek the thing for a joke…the person called back and asked me if I called Public Works. So I come and try to close the door but the chain here ain’t wukking no mo’… I tell them man to change this thing but nobody ain’t wan’ hear. This thing here is for a mechanic shop, not for koker wuk!” Hatton said.
He added that there is a schedule for the opening and closing of the koker; however, the koker attendant in charge seemed unaware of just who had been the last person to open it. Hatton further said that excavation work had been ongoing for the past few days to try and deepen the area surrounding the koker.
According to Hatton, he had tried to meet with Minister of Local Govern-ment Norman Whittaker about a month and a half ago. The purpose of the meeting, he explained, was to provide the ministry with video footage and photos he had of the canals in the cities and their blockages. He had hoped that the Ministry would see his findings but the meetings fell through and he is yet to meet with the minister.
“I wanted to meet and make a decision to determine how the Ministry is going to go about with the drainage situation of Georgetown,” he said. He added that the Sussex Street koker had been one he had identified as having a problem. He had identified a number of issues with the koker, including a defective chain hoist.
“If they had met with me earlier, this could have been avoided because my whole purpose of the meeting was to have this chain hoist changed and to have a more modernized system so these things don’t happen,” he said. He is unaware of the last time the chain hoist had been changed.
Eventually, an excavator was brought in from the Ministry of Public Works sometime before 5pm and subsequently another from the Mayor and City Council (M&CC); a super pump was eventually activated soon afterwards to ease the flow of water and the koker door was finally closed fully.
Nonetheless, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green said that engineers were working to ensure that there was no more damage. She further said that she had been informed by the koker attendant that someone had most likely tampered with the koker.
According to Chase-Green, the koker attendant is not stationed at the site and, in his absence, someone could have meddled with the equipment. She expressed the belief that something should also be done to increase the water capacity of the area surrounding the koker.
The malfunctioning of the koker could not have happened at a worst time; heavy afternoon traffic had been coming down from the East Bank and vehicles were forced to wait as the excavators attempted to navigate their way closer to the koker door. Traffic was further stymied by the large crowd that gathered to watch as officials worked on the door.
Several of these persons were heard voicing their contempt over the situation and deemed it an embarrassment.
“They ain’t got no proper engineering or no proper system,” one man said. Another added, “Hey, I tell ya; next time the PPP [People’s Progressive Party] get a next chance to run this country, the people gon’ go real mad.”
‘Sickening’
The residents of Albouystown were already “real mad” when Stabroek News paid a visit to the flooded area.
Several streets in Albouystown were flooded and only small sections of land were spared. In many sections, the water was calf-high and seeped into the lower-lying homes.
In some areas, the smell of waste oil from knocked-over barrels choked the air and the oil flowed through the water; in other areas, debris floated around the feet of those brave enough to enter the water.
At one home, a woman arrived from work and stared in shock at the water that had not been there when she left in the morning; at another home, a businesswoman hurriedly packed up items she had on sale and rushed to unplug as many appliances as possible.
“Flood start without rain,” one woman said as she shook her head, “me ain’t know wha’ is this.”
“Three day now we getting floods; three days now and now the water come back again!” one man angrily told Stabroek News. He went on, “I got one daughter and the other day she had to stay home for days. I cleaned out clean, clean, clean and now again it flood.”
Several residents expressed their frustration with the situation and said that the government cared very little for the poor community.
“The government just fighting we,” one resident said before adding, “When this happen, I think about the government right away and the poor job they’re doing here for us.”
According to the resident, no one in his home is yet to get sick from the recent floods but he is nonetheless scared. “This is sickening; people got to deh in they house with long boots. All the sewage water and waste oil coming in your house,” he said.
The residents are also counting their losses and said that many of the items in their homes were being damaged by the unexpected floods. They have reportedly lost appliances, furniture and a number of other items.
“The flood rotting away people house, and you know we done got a whole set of ol’ houses in Albouystown,” one resident lamented.
The La Penitence Market was also not spared and vendors were seen hurriedly packing away goods before they could be touched by the water.
“I was sitting here and I see the water start rising up just like that,” a vendor of the market told Stabroek News. She said that she was forced to lift her items higher. She continued, “This is a terrible situation, it hard…I’m more than fed up with this. If it’s not the rain, it’s the koker flood ya; you must get fed up.”