Region Ten Councillor Lawrence Hackett has expressed the opinion that Region Ten should be in a position to provide assistance to persons affected by coastal flooding but Regional Chairman Rennis Morian says the region is unable to do so.
Hackett, raising his concern during the first statutory meeting of the new Region Ten Democratic Council on Thursday, referred to the minutes of the inauguration of the council on June 30 when the Regional Chairman expressed concern that attention must be placed on disaster preparedness in the region especially in the wake of reports of dumping of toxic waste there. Hackett then asked if there was any form of disaster preparedness for flooding.
According to Hackett, some of the current councillors “were very much involved in the Great Flood of 2005….”
He said: “Up to this morning the news was saying there are four inches of rain and several parts of Georgetown, it is reported, are already under water.
Are we going to be in a position here at any point in time should we need to be of rescue to Georgetown?”
The Councillor added that disaster preparedness should be looked at in Region Ten on a constant basis because Linden is the first place of rescue for Georgetown if there was to be a repeat of the flooding that occurred in the early months of 2005.
Morian interjected that he had managed the Oxfam Disaster Preparedness programme in 2005, so he is fully aware of what is required in disaster preparedness management but since he has been in office for only two weeks, he has not been able to focus on disaster preparedness.
He said that he has, however, spoken to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and informed him that the ministry was not applying the disaster preparedness approach to flooding in Georgetown. Morian further stated that the ministry said they are looking into a report from 1995 that was advanced to the then government that it should adopt a disaster prevention preparedness approach to flooding.
He added that one is supposed to be prepared for Region Ten “so, you can look forward to one in Region Ten.”
Hackett said: “Sir, I fully well understand all the thoughts and plans but as we are speaking, water is rising in Georgetown. I figure we need an immediate response.”
Morian replied: “In Region Ten, first of all, to respond you have to have capacity, you have to have funding and you have to have a structure. We have none of that.
What we did in 2005, is after we saw the rising of the flood and I’m in Linden as a disaster preparedness person, I spoke with the then Chairman [and] Mr Roberts and there was a computer specialist at the multilateral school and we came together with my information.
We captured it in a document … and we moved to have a preparation done to the extent that when, I think, it was USAID or the United Nations saw what we had done, they provided funding… So, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. These information are right in here. We have to find the file, look at what we’ve done and move now to have the structures and other things in place.
“But to say respond, right now, even the government in Georgetown responding would be a problem because responding takes finance and you should be aware that the pumps that should have been here over the past five years, all are not here and those that are here lack various components to make them operational. They are racing against the clock to make those components functional.”
