The City Works Committee of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council yesterday announced that an investigation has been launched after they received reports of operators not being present at their respective pump stations and sluices.
This was revealed at an emergency press conference following heavy rainfall that began on Tuesday night and which continued up to yesterday morning. Acting Town Clerk Sherry Jerrick reported that the city experienced heavy rainfall on Tuesday evening, which resulted in flooding in areas in South Georgetown.
“The City Engineer has since launched an investigation because we have received reports that some operators were not on duty and there appeared to be some amount of neglect,” Jerrick said.
According to the acting town clerk, a report of the investigation was expected by the end of the day and disciplinary action will be taken against any operator found guilty of neglect. She added that they would have received complaints from residents as it relates to the flooding and how they were affected, but have not yet received any complaints in relation to damage or losses.
Acting Chief Engineer Kenson Boston said that the rainfall had caused a backup of water within the city. “The reports that we received is that the pumps were not on at that time so, as a result of that, the volume of water has increased significantly,” Boston said.
He added that the investigation is to ascertain why the pumps were not on and pointed out that though they have systems in place, the operational procedure was not followed and they need to find out why.
“We, also, through the city works committee, arranged for the standard operating procedure to be revised and even be reinforced where there might be weak points,” the engineer said. He emphasised that they are working on the current system and through the investigation, they will be able to pinpoint the weak points.
Jerrick, meanwhile, said that the penalty for neglect by operators ranges from suspensions to dismissals. Boston added that there is usually one person assigned to a pump station but the Sussex Street sluice is operated as a tide door. However, a pump was at that sluice and the operator should have been there to operate it, he said.
