After rainfall at Wash Clothes and Savannah Number One coincided with the spring tides at Mahaicony, residents are now faced with mild flooding.
This is according to the former Region Five Chairman, Bindrabhan Bisnauth, who said the water is not at an alarming level but if it does not recede, residents will suffer losses.
Bisnauth said his major concern is the impact the flooding will have on rice farmers. He said farmers have to use tractor-driven pumps to drain the water. Bisnauth said this process sucks diesel and is expensive. He said the drainage process conducted by the farmers caused the canals to be blocked and as a result the water takes longer to drain off the land.
Ashford Ambedkar, the Regional Executive Officer, said a mini excavator will be used to clean the drains this morning. He said that from his reports, the flooding was caused by debris which blocked the canal. He also said the flooding was not major.
Rainfall had also caused the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) to reach a dangerous level of 58.25 Georgetown Datum and the Ministry of Agriculture decided to release water from the conservancy, into the Northern Relief Channel of the Hope Dochfour outlet and via the eight-door sluice into the Atlantic Ocean.
Lionel Wordsworth of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority said rain had ceased for 12 hours and as a result the EDWC level went down to 58.15.
The Government Information Agency had said that Minister of Health, George Norton, would visit the Mahaicony area tomorrow to assess the situation.
