While residents and farmers of the Mahaicony Creek are seeing a significant drop in water levels after two months of deep flooding, they are convinced that even tougher times are ahead when the land dries out.
The Save Abee Foundation yesterday conducted a medical outreach for Mahaicony Creek residents hard-hit by floods over the last few months. Around 300 residents showed up at the Mora Health Centre for attention. The residents have complained that they have received little help from the authorities since the flooding started.
Over the last two months, heavy rain in the Mahaicony watershed coursed down the river, flooding low- lying farms and exposing problems with the drainage infrastructure on the Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) coast. Areas such as Trafalgar, Lovely Lass, Numbers 29, 30 and 31 villages were inundated, mostly because the main koker and channel at Trafalgar were blocked. Two key pumps at Trafalgar had also been vandalised a year earlier and this compounded the problem.
“It’s been a long time since this whole thing started and only about a week and a half ago it started moving down fast. It’s not gone completely because my garden still has a lot of water and I can’t do anything there and even when the water goes down completely tougher times will come because we still will have to wait for the land (to dry) to go again,” Lowlaysar Shrikant, a farmer from Gordon Table, told Stabroek News yesterday.
The man, who has a two-acre cash crop farm, explained that even when the water completely recedes, he will still have to wait at least a month for the land to be ready for use again.
“It does seem harder than the flood to be honest,” he said, pointing out that while there is still some water on his land, his losses are mounting.
When Stabroek News visited several weeks ago, it was impossible to tell the difference between Shrikant’s farm and the creek as it was completely inundated. While Shrikant is currently playing a “waiting game”, hoping that the water recedes and the land dries as quickly as possible, he said that the only way that he can start back planting his crops is if he is able to get a loan from the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED).
“Well, I am hoping to get a loan from IPED to start back because that is my only alternative. Me can’t start back if I don’t get that loan and I never had one but I have to try,” he said.
In addition to concerns about his crops, Shrikant highlighted that most of the animals have been suffering from sicknesses and are dying as the days go by. Another farmer and livestock owner, Susankar Seedyal pointed out that several of his goats have died and others are very sick.
“The water gone down about a week and a half now but we ain’t getting no assistance in here man. You see how the place deh? Like we is pigs and living here. No vet nah come in here and all the animals sick, sick, sick. Watch, the goat got high fever and they gon die too,” he said.
While the water has gone down in Seedyal’s yard and his garden area is dry, he explained that he cannot start back planting because he has no funds. “Is a gamble and me ain’t got no money. You mind and grow back and flood every year destroying everything. What we supposed to do? Right now I want to leave this country and find another job cause me ain’t know what to do,” the frustrated man declared.
Soppy
Another farmer, Dannyram Persaud, explained that he was waiting for his farmlands to completely dry so that he could start back cultivating but he was worried about the rain returning and flooding the lands again.
“As you can see the water is not covering the gardens anymore but the land is still soppy and we can’t do anything. We have to wait until it’s hard so we can work on it again but the rain comes and goes and it does get wet all over again,” Persaud pointed out, adding that he is grateful that the water had receded but his struggle has only started.
Additionally, most of the persons in the area have been complaining about feeling sick. The residents had explained before that even though there was a major flood, they were forced to use the creek water, as they are accustomed to, for their daily use. They had pleaded with the authorities to assist them with fresh water but never received any.
“Right now I getting real bad, bad belly pain and is not me alone. Everybody feeling sick and got flu or something of the sort in the area,” one of the residents pointed out.
The residents were given some relief yesterday after the non-profit organisation, Save Abee Foundation, held a medical outreach and donated food supplies.
Over 300 residents from the surrounding communities flowed through the Mora Point Health Centre where they were able to obtain free medical services. The residents were also given a food hamper and Asha Tilak, one of the founders of Save Abee, told Stabroek News yesterday that one of the main reasons why they decided to target the area was because of the devastating flood that has been plaguing the community.
Dave Persaud, a doctor from the Georgetown Public Hospital who volunteered with the organisation for the first time, lauded the services that were being offered to the residents.
“Well, it is the first time I am with Save Abee and I am quite impressed because of the variety of services that are actually provided to the residents here and in fact, there are a lot of sicknesses that you see here that you would see at the public hospital and the good thing about being part of this team is that having worked already in the system you know where to direct people,” Persaud said, explaining that since a doctor only visits the health centre once a month, it was a pleasure for him to be able to assist people and they have already referred multiple patients who he said were “seriously ill.”
Tilak also explained that while the organisation visits every year and provides their services to various communities, the founding members got directly involved in the activity because they want it to be done properly.
The residents also lauded the opportunity that was given to them and praised the organisation.
“I don’t know what we would do cause people de getting sick here all over so is good that they think about we and come because not everybody can find money and go to town and we does hardly see a doctor here,” one of the residents told Stabroek News.
The health centre compound was flooded with residents, from the old to the young, and all of them were assisted by multiple doctors.
