Over the next several weeks, the Liliendaal and South Ruimveldt drainage catchment areas will be modelled by a Dutch team, as government looks to better manage Georgetown’s drainage system.
Project Georgetown Drainage was officially launched at the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday with Dutch engineers highlighting what they hope to accomplish over the next two months. The engineers are here to develop and test an approach to modelling following a recommendation by a Dutch Risk Reduction Team that this be done.
Stabroek News reported last week that according to the Dutch Risk Reduction Team, a largely reactive approach to flood situations has worked well under the circumstances but the current flood management system is vulnerable and may collapse dramatically under extreme conditions. The team had urged a more proactive approach.
The Dutch Risk Reduction Team had visited Guyana last year at the request of government. The Ministry of Public Infrastructure had asked the team to advise on the drainage situation, both for Georgetown and the low-lying agricultural coastlands.
The team’s report was submitted in January and among other things, identified short, medium and long-term measures that can be taken to better operate and manage the drainage system of Georgetown and the low-lying coastal areas.
One of the recommendations was that government upgrade modelling capability even as the report noted that the current practice of maintaining and improving the drainage system is largely projects-based. It had recommended that the authorities make a long-term project plan to gradually develop the hydraulic drainage model for Georgetown. It also urged the setting up of a simple spreadsheet type of network model for the entire drainage system of Georgetown and use it to better understand the flow of water.
Yesterday, acting head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Frederick Flatts pointed out that the report had identified some of the problems and suggested solutions. “One of the recommended solutions was a modelling of… some of the drainage catchments in Georgetown in order to make the results of different levels of rainfall predictable,” he said while noting that this will be used as a management or research tool to improve the drainage system in Georgetown.
He said that the Liliendaal and South Ruimveldt drainage catchment areas have been identified as the areas that will be modelled. According to Flatts, the Liliendaal catchment area is believed to be the most inefficient drainage system in Georgetown with the two 150 cusecs pumps at Liliendaal unable to drain the large drainage catchment.
He pointed out that local engineers will be working along with the Dutch engineers and these will come from the NDIA, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, the University of Guyana, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA), among others.
“We anticipate that there will be significant technology transfer particularly in setting up and utilising the drainage model. This we believe will help not only in Georgetown but indeed other organisations such as GuySuCo, NDIA and UG. In other words, the same principles that will be used for modelling the drainage system in Georgetown… that same system can be used by GuySuCo, NDIA and other organisations that have to do with drainage,” Flatts declared.
He said they also anticipate that this project will not be the end and they want to work closely with the Netherlands in taking Guyana’s drainage forward.
“We believe that much can be gained if we collaborate,” he said.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson, Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder and other officials from various agencies were present at yesterday’s commencement ceremony.
