After enduring a week-long flood, some Buxton residents were breathing sighs of relief when the water finally receded yesterday.
Parts of the East Coast Demerara community had been inundated owing to a breach in a dam. However, the breach was fixed late Sunday afternoon, resulting in the water receding yesterday.
When Stabroek News visited the community yesterday, several residents related that when they awakened in the morning, the water was already down, which they credited to the dam being fixed.
Chairman of the Buxton/Foulis Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Deon Abrams told Stabroek News that the water had receded from all of the land. “The breach has been addressed—it was fixed yesterday—and the situation is under control,” he said, while explaining that even though an additional pump was added weeks ago to help deal with the heavy rainfall, the breached dam was the main reason for the flooding.
Abrams also pointed out that there were several sluices in the backdam that had not been closed. “According to the farmers, when the guys go up there to hunt, they usually open them to relieve the water but would not close them back,” he said. He added that the NDC will ensure that they are closed and chained and that they will only be opened when absolutely necessary.
Abrams had previously related that seven to eight inches of floodwater had already receded but because of the inflow from the irrigation canal, water was taking longer than usual to flow off the land. He had also pointed out that the dam had been previously breached in a different location and that the overflow had caused erosion.
Contractor David Joseph, who lives just over the road from where the dam was first breached, had voiced his dissatisfaction with the quality of work executed by the man who had been hired to fix the breach.
Joseph related that the dam was breached over a year ago. He said although a revetment was placed where the area was eroded, the contractor should have “plaited” all the planks to provide reinforcement against the water in the canal. Furthermore, the depression in the road should have been filled, he said.
