Dear Editor,
On June 21, NBC’s the ‘Morning Show’, the announcer was very happy to tell her audience that Tropical Storm Bret was no more, however the USA’s attention would now turn to Tropical Storm Cindy. We in Guyana are also very happy to have been rid of the effects of the tail end of Bret but are we really just experiencing the tail end? Since the 2005 flood, I have been taking notes on the effects of storms in Guyana during the hurricane period and to say the least it has been getting progressively worse. At one point I could have predicted when a hurricane was forming because we, in Guyana, would have intense thunder and lightning a few days before. These observations are not scientific and by no means do I proclaim that they are correct; however, it was fun to win bets among my friends.
The changing weather patterns are not to be taken lightly. Evidently, there are changes taking place, and whether they are subtle or not, they are happening. It is important that Guyana pay close attention to these changes especially after the 2005 floods and the fact that we always were and still are 6 feet below sea level. It is a known fact that the drainage system used in Guyana was designed by the Dutch donkeys years ago. Generally a drain is used to drain the runoff during the rainy season and during the dry season it would be logical to expect dry drains. I remember when I attended primary school I would walk along the pavement and in the dried gutters in front of the GPHC. So what has changed? Well for one thing we do not see dried drains in Guyana any more. The most we would see is silted canals. I would like to think that the changes in the drainage are similar to the subtle changes in the weather patterns. Just as the weather is getting progressively worse the drainage is also getting worse. I must say that a lot of work has been done recently, but to what effect? A drive along any of our major drainage outlets would reveal two predominant scenes: leaning posts and leaning trees. It seems the engineers and contractors responsible for keeping the drainage effective believe that wider is better, and so every time they work along the canals they just keep getting wider and wider. What would eventually happen, if it has not started already, is our roads would be undermined and our trees would start toppling.
I thought there was no other way to clean our trenches and we had persons who would recognize the damage they are causing, but it seems I was wrong. There are other ways to clean our canals that were used years ago, namely a dragline. I saw one parked at Houston a few days ago but that one is now being used to drive piles for our overhead walkway. This brings us to the use of the Hymac to clear the canals. Clearly it is not as effective as should be. Just take a drive along Lamaha Street or more recently Church Street and check how fast the canals get clogged after cleaning. Cleaning the canals properly by digging them deeper would kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, we would not have the problem of the canals getting wider and have trees and posts leaning. Secondly, the plants would not survive because the roots would not anchor when the canals are deeper. My suggestion would be to bridge the canals with heavy logs or movable concrete posts so that Hymacs can dig the canals instead of just grading the top. Lastly, I wish to add that the best time to clean any drain is during dry season in preparation for the wet season and tropical storm tail-ends.
Yours faithfully,
Davida K Misir
