Dear Editor,
Blue CAPS notes with grave concern the alarming frequency with which flooding occurs in coastal areas. Koker breaches are becoming the norm and heavy rainfall now invariably leads to high levels of flooding in many coastline areas, including the densely populated capital city, Georgetown.
The frequent koker failures represent an inadequacy and technical deficiency on the part of the public works authorities to ensure the kokers are structurally sound and are manned and operated in a systematic and reliable manner.
The Ministry of Public Works is being called upon to conduct an urgent examination of our koker systems nationally with the aim of offering viable long-term solutions to arrest the regular breaches.
The immense and frequent floods are a result of both natural causes and the failure of governance systems to function effectively. In terms of the latter, it represents the failure of, and underscores the need for, central government to call local government elections so that citizens can elect new leaders to address the competency deficit and marshal resources and apply new approaches to the current structural defects that exist.
Anything short of local elections will just represent another cosmetic application to a serious national threat to citizens’ health, well-being and security.
Yours faithfully,
Marissa Lowden
Founding Director/Secretary
Blue CAPS
