The University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus will be partially closed for the next two days as efforts are made to address the damage caused by last week’s storm and as well as health and safety issues created by the resulting floodwaters on the campus.
This is according to Vice Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi, who told Stabroek News that over the next two days the operations of the university will be limited to the administering of summer classes and examinations.
“We have a lot of dead animals that are smelling now. We have to clean it up. And we are trying to take care of health and safety issues. We are working to eliminate the smells and all of that, so the campus will be closed,” he said
In a subsequent announcement on the University’s Facebook page, the Vice Chancellor’s office also advised students that the library will be closed due to flooding of the lower level of the facility.
All clean-up efforts will be undertaken by the Facilities Maintenance Division of the University of Guyana.
Opadeyi also noted that the administration is looking at a long-term solution to the flooding problem at the university, since the poor drainage at the campus makes it a “basin” which collects water and debris from the surrounding communities.
“That is part of our special capital budget that we want to present to government on the drainage system. We are getting help from the World Bank project… but the money is not enough so we are pushing government to add more to that money,” he added.
In 2013, the University of Guyana launched the World Bank-funded US$10 million Science and Technology Support Project (STSP). Initialized by the then Government of Guyana (GOG) in support of the implementation of its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the project was intended to finance three components: Education Quality Improvement, Institutional Capacity Building and Infrastructure Rehabilitation.
Opadeyi could not definitively state how much of the US$10 million has been allocated for the upgrading of the drainage system under the Infrastructure Rehabilitation aspect of the project, nor could he say how much money would be needed to upgrade the faulty drainage, since no comprehensive evaluation of the present system has been completed and no proposal has been crafted.
“The study has not been done. First, we have to condemn the current system and lay new system down in place,” he said.
He, however, explained that the new system might see the creation of “retention ponds” to alleviate the problem. According to Opadeyi, the administration is hoping to completely scrap the present drainage system and introduce a new one which will adequately address the needs of the campus.
“We are looking for a consultant to design and give us a cost of a new drainage system,” he added.
Though he recognises the situation as “a unique problem,” he did not foresee any trouble in sourcing a consultant. “The most we will do is… a selective tendering of the consultant who will do it for us. This I do not think will cost us much. I’m sure we will get people who will do it for us for almost next to nothing,” he further said.
