Residents of some sections of West Berbice have been affected by flooding again and are wondering where the water is coming from as they did not have that much rainfall.
They told Stabroek News yesterday that the water had only recently receded and that the level had already raised a few inches in their yards.
They were happy that the government had deployed more pumps to the area and excavators to clear the drainage or the flooding could have been worse.
According to residents of Number 29 Village, those by the roadside who were affected in the previous flood that took about three months to recede, did not experience any flooding this time.
During that time residents suffered losses to crops and livestock and had also started to get sick.
Contacted, Fredrick Flatts, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority (NDIA), told this newspaper that heavy rainfall was responsible for the flooding this time.
He pointed out that the last time, it was also caused by water flowing from the backlands but this time they have blocked the culverts to prevent that from happening.
Flatts explained that the “culverts are supposed to drain the residents but water in main drain is higher than the residential land…”
He said too that on Wednesday the NDIA deployed two additional mobile pumps, which are bigger and have the capacity to take off more water. He was confident that “if there is no rain the area would be free from flooding.”
According to the CEO, “We now have six mobile pumps between Tempe and Bush Lot and four excavators,” as well as two pontoon-mounted excavators to clear the outfall channels.
Up to yesterday, water was flowing through the Trafalgar sluice at 450 gallons per second, a mere trickle as compared to the over 12,000 gallons per second that the sluice was designed to take off.
The heavy siltation of the outfall channels is preventing the effective gravity flow but the NDIA is working to have the amount increased.
Flatts pointed out that seven tractor pumps were in operation before but he “gave instructions to [only] use some.”
He said that this time from Golden Grove to Trafalgar is affected while the areas between Union and Tempe are in a better condition. A pump which had been placed at Bush Lot has the capacity to drain over 600 gallons of water per second.
Meanwhile, residents of the Trafalgar area said they are being visited by snakes every day and are pleading with the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) to assist with clearing a trench where the reptiles are coming from.
They said that the MMA-ADA had dug the trench a long time ago but when they approached them for assistance recently, they were told that it was on “private land.”
They said too that after the trench is cleared, they would “throw waste oil so snakes won’t come back.”
“The weeds are really big in the trench and lots of snakes are coming out from there and killing out our ducks,” a terrified resident told Stabroek News. “We don’t want it to reach a stage when someone would be bitten…”
