A high tide damaged a section of a koker door at Number 52 Village, Coren-tyne yesterday afternoon, leaving residents in the community and its envi-rons at risk of devastating flood damage.
Region Six Chairman David Armogan yesterday said that if the issue was not remedied by the end of today, it will result in a lot of flooding and other issues for farmers and residents. “…The salt water is going to get into the cultivation system and that’s going to spell trouble for rice farmers and other cash crop farmers,” he explained during a visit to the koker.
He added that the entire Number 52 to Number 74 area along with other communities can likely be flooded if the water is not stopped from entering.
Armogan said planks would be placed as a stopgap measure while work to fix the door is ongoing. “The priority right now is to stop the water from going through the door,” he emphasised.
As of yesterday after-noon, the regional officials were trying to procure planks. “We have imme-diately brought in Mr Peter Lewis, who is a contractor; we have a sawmill cutting some wood right now for us and NDIA National Drainage and Irrigation Authority] has also been engaged to bring down some 3 x 12 planks from Georgetown,” Armogan added.
Meanwhile, Armogan noted that during a recent visit by Minister of Agri-culture Zulfikar Mustapha, it was observed that the now damaged door was not “right down to where it should be.”
After investigating, regional officials were told that a machine would be used to fix the issue. “Apparently what happened there now, it had to be a structural problem before, maybe the person who did the contract before might have did a door which hasn’t been able to touch the concrete, so there was erosion there all the time taking place and when it was big enough the water… pushed out the door,” Armogan said.
The chairman pointed out that the region has to be extremely “careful” with contractors, as he noted that it was around four years ago that works were last done at the structure.
