The Ministry of Agriculture and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) have announced that persons seen dumping garbage in drains will face the full force of the law.
In a video posted to the Ministry’s Facebook page, the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, asked that residents stop dumping garbage in the trenches as it is hampering the drainage system. He noted that it is the rainy season and when the water cannot flow easily because of garbage blocking it, this causes flooding. Since the government began assessing the floods in certain areas that were affected by the rainfall, it was revealed that most of the flooding was cause by blockages and lack of free flow.
According to the NDIA, flooding in most cases has been a direct effect of dumping of all sorts of refuse directly into the drainage, trenches, and canals, resulting in blockage and damage to both mobile and fixed pumps which pump water out of the communities. The NDIA monitoring and evaluation officer, Christine Douglas, said that millions of dollars are spent because of the debris in pumps. She further said that the debris is caused by the negligence of persons, adding that in many of the areas where there is flooding, there are persons who are living on the reserved lands and they sometimes make it difficult for the NDIA to gain access to the pumps.
The NDIA said that the channels that are blocked are cleaned by the NDIA but residents continue to dispose of their garbage incorrectly and directly into the drainage systems. It said that decomposed animals and other items are dumped in the canals and trenches and the contractors who are hired by the NDIA refuse to manually clean the area around the pumps when these items are found floating in the area or directly in the pump’s garbage tray. The NDIA warned that if persons are seen throwing garbage into the drains, they will be met with the full force of the law.
Meanwhile, the Civil Defence Commission Senior Response Officer, Captain Salim October, told this newspaper that a number of agencies have been mandated by Mustapha to conduct assessments in the Charity, Pomeroon-Supenaam, Region Two area. According to information revealed by Mustapha in the video, the flooding at Pomeroon was caused by the blocking of drains by debris. October said that Mustapha’s ministry is giving persons in the area agricultural assistance. According to reports, the CDC has provided aid to 1,200 severely affected homes. The Commission has also distributed food hampers. October said that while the CDC is no longer in the area, it is monitoring the 23 communities that were flooded in January.
