Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Fredrick Flatts has said an eight-foot dam, between Fairfield and Dantzig, Region Five, will soon be built to ease the suffering of Mahaica-Berbice residents who have been devastated by recent spring tides.
The dam, construction of which is due to begin tomorrow, is also expected to decrease flooding in those areas expected from the coming spring tide this month.
This was revealed to the Department of Public Information (DPI) during an interview with Flatts, who said that the dam would be the “best solution at hand” at the moment, when he visited the area with Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture Valerie Adams-Yearwood on Friday.
“We plan to build a secondary dam between Fairfield and Dantzig. The secondary would be very high, about 8 feet high above the land and about 12 feet top width. It’s a significant dam. That dam will start at the sea defence to cross the Bellamy Canal coming about 800 feet into the land, then go parallel to the sea defence and come back in at Fairfield,” he was quoted as saying.
Two separate springtides have recently had devastating effects on the lives of residents, leaving them to cope with unexpected damage as well as being flooded. The residents of Mahaicony became vulnerable as a result of the breaches in the sea defence along Dantzig to Fairfield. The three-kilometre stretch along the shoreline is currently being impacted by major erosion of the foreshore and depletion of the mangrove fringe.
The DPI report said Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman told Annette Balgobin and Zabida Baccus that the construction of the dam would begin tomorrow after they received their food hampers during a visit by him and Adams-Yearwood.
He said on that date excavators will be dispatched to the High Dam area and commence their work, which hopefully, will decrease flooding in those areas caused by the spring tides.
Flatts also held a meeting to discuss ways that the current situation can be remedied with members of the said communities.
According to the report, Adams-Yearwood, who delivered food hampers to residents at High Dam, Rebecca’s Lust and Glaziers Lust, was satisfied with the NDIA’s solution, which also got the support of the residents. She reportedly said, “Your government is very concerned about your current situation… Hearing the plan by Mr. Flatts, we expect that with the spring tide in November, we would not see a repeat of what we saw this season here.
After Adams-Yearwood’s meeting, Trotman held a similar meeting with residents to assure them that they will not be affected by the spring tides the way they were affected during the past weeks.
“We are trying to tabulate how much has been lost and to see how best the government can replace. What we are seeing here is Mother Nature demonstrating that she is in charge, but governments do have a responsibility to take care of its people… We are responding to a situation of need,” Trotman told DPI.
In addition, the report stated that the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) has since begun distributing clean drinking water and cleaning agents to families who were affected by the high tide in that area. At least forty-three families were given food hampers to last more than one week, along with cleaning agents to aid in the cleanup efforts.
