After being swamped for several weeks, floodwaters in certain parts of the West Coast Berbice are finally receding.
Stabroek News had reported last week that there was deep flooding in parts of Region Five. When this newspaper had visited the communities of Trafalgar, Lovely Lass, Union, Number 30 Village and Number 29 Village, several yards were flooded with water, in some parts exceeding two feet of water. Acres of land were covered with water as far as the eye could see while houses stood isolated. It was difficult to tell where the trench was from land. Makeshift bridges were so deeply submerged in the murky water that they were hard to spot.
Yesterday, a resident of Trafalgar, Jenny Richards, whose yard had previously been covered in more than a foot of water, related to Stabroek News that the water had receded and all that was left was the swampy land. “It went down almost completely and all that it got is the lil mud in the yard but it’s gone after such a long time,” she said. The woman related that the pumps throughout the villages and at the pump station had been working all night.
She pointed out that there had been about three pumps working around the stretch of villages that were flooded and another at the pump station.
While the residents have gotten some relief, they remain adamant that the original pumps should be repaired and the two that were removed from the pump station should be returned. “We glad that it gone down and what’s not but what’s going to happen again when it ready to flood? The water still gonna come down whether is this year or the next year and they gotto fix the big pumps because it was put there to deal with Trafalgar specially,” Lance Faucet, a resident of Trafalgar told to Stabroek News.
Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Fredrick Flatts had told Stabroek News that the flooding in several Region Five villages could have been avoided if the two big pumps located at Trafalgar were not vandalized. The pumps were vandalized two years ago and Flatts had said that the delay in repairing them is due to a lack of finances. “NDIA will need about $40 million to put them back into operation,” he had said.
Meantime, while the floodwaters in the West Coast Berbice villages have receded, other areas in the Region including Mahaicony Creek areas remain under water.
