The members of the Public Infrastructure Task Force have been identified, according to Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson who yesterday revealed that Major General (rtd) Joe Singh will head the force that is expected to address drainage and irrigation reform throughout the country.
The minister, who was speaking to reporters at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, also announced that he is awaiting approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a technical team from the Netherlands to come to Guyana to assist in this process. He said the assistance was offered by that country. The Dutch were responsible for designing and building major parts of the drainage infrastructure in Georgetown, which was hardest hit by the two most recent flooding events following heavy rainfall.
The minister said Charles Sohan, Malcolm Ali, Andrew Bishop, Stanley Ming, Joseph Holder, Charles Ceres and Dr David Singh have been invited to sit on the task force along with representatives from some key agencies.
The task force has six months in which to submit its preliminary report, the minister said.
According to the minister, the task force will be supported by an administrative secretariat which has already been established and has been working for the last three weeks and is in the process of compiling several reports on drainage in Guyana.
The task force would visit all regions to assess what is needed in each region and during these visits the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) and the Neighbourhood Demo-cratic Councils (NDCs) will have the opportunities to make presentations.
Patterson said it appeared that every five to ten years experts would be brought who would make proposal which were never acted on. He said this was the reason for the task force as it is believed that if the proposals were acted on then, “we wouldn’t have been in the situation that we are in today.” He said the team is trying to get all of this information together and has already visited several communities and recorded spot levels of the floodwaters for future reference as well as assessments of the kokers.
He said the reason behind the six-month deadline is “we would like not only to look at what is existing but project say for Georgetown, where it is going to be in 15, 20 years and make provisions for that now.” Additionally, he said there are at least six different agencies looking at drainage in the city.
“Coming out of this commission I would like a holistic approach which we could act on. It is no use trying to simply to do a band aid solution whereby we just continue clearing drains or repairing sluices. The problem is much bigger than that,” he said adding that the ministry has to give itself time to study the situation and come up with a feasible solution including financing long-term works.
Asked about the damage being done to roads by floodwaters, he said that at the moment the ministry is temporarily filling potholes with burnt earth. “It will be foolhardy to actually try and repair these roads until we do run into a more prolonged dry season,” he said adding that the ministry will put in “extensively for the rehabilitation of lots of roads in our budget.”
He said he has indicated to his team that while roads are going to be repaired and rehabilitated, they must look at roads which have not been done in 10 to 15 years in their budget.
He said the “patchwork” will continue throughout the rainy season.
Meantime, Chairman of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) Colonel (rtd) Chabilall Ramsarup, who was also at the press conference, said following last Wednesday’s flooding they have been in discussion with regional authorities and all the regions except for Regions Three and Four reported that their situations were manageable and could have been handled with the available resources.
The shelter in Albouystown remains open where persons receive three meals a day and Food for the Poor has also assisted with some items of food, shoes and clothing which are being distributed. When the shelter is closed residents would be given sanitization kits and personal hygiene kits will be distributed. Food hampers will also be shared.
The Guyana Livestock Development Authority has reported death of cattle in Regions Three, Four and Five, but nothing alarming, along with some of amount of poultry dying as well. The authority is helping farmers in those regions with a few items such as vitamins and molasses for the animals.
