Major General (Rtd) Joseph Singh has emphasised that the Hope Canal Project was never designed to alleviate flooding along the East Coast and as such should not be depended on to provide relief in the future for flood-prone areas.
At a briefing by the National Task Force (NTF) for the Rehabilitation, Restoration and Renewal of Guyana held in the boardroom of the Public Infrastructure Ministry on Monday, Singh stated that he wished to “stress” that the Hope Canal Project was designed to assist in the draining of the East Demerara Water Conservancy.
“Contrary to some popular belief the Hope Canal is not going to help the East Coast of Demerara.
It will only provide stability for the 200 square miles of the East Demerara Water Conservancy,” he told members of the media.
He referred to sections of the coast from the Conservancy Dam to the Rupert Craig Highway as “reservoirs”
Singh said that “we still have issues when rain falls and we have collection of water between the Conservancy Dam and the Crown Dam, between the Crown Dam and the railway embankment road, between the railway embankment road and the East Demerara Highway, between the East Coast Demerara Highway and the seawall… so once you have an accumulation of water in those reservoirs unless you have enough culverts or conduits to move the water from those areas out to the Atlantic you will get flooding.”
He cautioned that “Buxton for example is the lowest area on the East Coast between here and Mahaica and is always the last to drain so we need to disabuse our minds of the Hope Canal as the answer…it is not, it stabilises the East Demerara Water Conservancy and of course it prevents the kind of flooding that happened in the Mahaica Creek (where) in order to ensure the integrity of the dam water was released through the Maduni koker into the Mahaica and causes flooding in the Mahaica.”
Recent rain saw water taking a long time to drain from Buxton. Parts of the lower East Coast also endured flooding.
As Chairman of the Commission, Singh noted that by October the NTF will finish its draft plan and the first phase of works is to be finished by May of next year to coincide with Guyana’s Independence jubilee.
During the briefing, Singh highlighted many of the issues and the current problems but noted that the six committees that are to be set up under the commission will be charged with offering solutions.
Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority as well as the convener for the Drainage Committee of the NTF, Frederick Flatts agreed with Singh that more outlet channels will be needed especially in relation to Georgetown.
During the presentation and the question period that followed, the financial implications of such a commission were not expanded on and the Chairman only stated that financing will be the responsibility of the various agencies that are part of the commission and the ministries they are under.
So far, the commission is set to receive $36M for administrative work until 2016. Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson had first discussed the task force after the heavy June rains which caused flooding throughout the capital and along the East Coast after which Cabinet approved its formation along with $75M in emergency funding.
