Residents of the Fyrish/Gibraltar area in East Berbice are venting their anger at the ongoing flooding in the area.
According to the residents, they have been under water for the last two months. They explained that the two main contributing factors to the flooding is the non-functioning drainage pump, which has been down for the past seven weeks, and the heavily silted main outfalls.
“How long we get this problem, we accustom to it by now,” a villager, who asked not to be named, told Stabroek News. “Them region people need to do something, hire somebody to dig out the channels or something,” he added. Other residents called on regional officials to step in and address their plight.
Meanwhile, speaking at a press briefing on Monday, Vice-Chairman of Region Six Dennis Deroop stated that the administration has received complaints that the Fyrish/Gibraltar area, the 51 Village to 53 Village area and the Liverpool/Manchester area were under water. “Every time rain falls, these communities are constantly flooded,” he acknowledged.
According to Deroop, the three main outfall channels in the areas need to be desilted at the earliest. He stated that villagers from Fyrish sometime last week highlighted the situation to regional officials and threatened to protest if necessary assistance is not rendered.
Deroop, who confirmed that the pump in that area is non-functional, said that work has started on the outfall in Borlam-Fyrish area after the Ministry of Agriculture was written for help. “The other two [are] still unattended, Liverpool and the 51-53,” he said.
According to the Vice-Chairman, due to the flooding, villagers have lost crops and livestock. “Unfortunately, we could not get the REO to commit himself in terms of financing these projects, so these communities suffered tremendously over the past couple of weeks,” he said.
Deroop stressed that they will continue to make representation for work to be started on the two other outfalls.
