-solitary pump at key Trafalgar sluice
Photos by Keno George
With floodwater coursing down the Mahaicony River, several Region Five villages remained inundated yesterday and as farmers and householders counted their losses, questions were being raised as to why the drainage authority wasn’t doing more to relieve their plight.
Heavy rain last week in the Mahaicony watershed flooded Moraikobai in the upper reaches and was a clear indicator that communities downstream were at risk.
Stabroek News had reported yesterday that there was deep flooding in parts of Region Five and the Chairman of the Mahaica-Berbice region, Vickchand Ramphal had told Stabroek News that while various communities were under water, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) in collaboration with the Mahaica, Mahai-cony, Abary-Agriculture Development Authority (MMA-ADA) had sent several excavators and pumps around the region in the hope of taking down the water level.
Ramphal had pointed out that the canal and sluice at Trafalgar is heavily silted up and while a hydraulic pump was installed it would be insufficient to handle the amount of water on the land currently.
When Stabroek News visited the communities of Trafalgar, Lovely Lass, Union, Number 30 Village and Number 29 Village yesterday, yards were flooded, some with over two feet of water. Acres of land were covered with water as far as the eye could see. Lone houses were surrounded by large bodies of water and it was difficult to tell where the trench was from the land. Makeshift bridges were so deeply submerged in the murky water that they were hard to spot.