Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha yesterday disclosed that his ministry is collaborating with the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) to determine how best to assist livestock farmers who suffered losses as a result of the breached river defence at Little Diamond, East Bank Demerara.
Mustapha made the announcement during a follow up visit to the site of the breached river defence yesterday afternoon. He acknowledged that the breach could have been avoided had the excavator operators paid attention to the dam.
A total of 114 households suffered damage to their belongings as a result of flooding during the high tide on Monday morning. Home appliances and furniture, among other items were soaked in the flood waters that rushed into homes after the river defence dam broke.
The minister opined that the contractor was culpable and should offer compensation to affected households to replace their electrical appliances.
“This was a serious breach. We should not have had this situation because this project has been awarded since 2017 and it is now 2021. I have called in the contractor [BK International] and inform-ed them they have until mid-May to complete works here,” he related.
The sluice is being constructed at a cost of $123 million under the auspices of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority.
Mustapha also stated that he has instructed the Permanent Secretary of his Ministry Collette Adams to write to the National Pro—-curement and Tender Administration Board informing that the ministry does not favour working with the contracting firm due to its inability to complete projects on time.
He noted that between now and the completion of the project, the ministry will have the works monitored by technical officers to ensure that everything is up to standard.
Residents of the community were awakened after 3am on Monday to shouts alerting them of water rushing into their homes.
While it was the fourth breach that has occurred since the construction of the sluice began, the residents said it resulted in the worst flooding of its type.
Stabroek News understands that an excavator that was deployed to construct a new dam around the sluice to function as a river defence got stuck. The depression weakened the dam, which was eventually washed away.
According to the residents, since Sunday morning they informed the excavator operators of the breach but they failed to seal it properly. They alerted them because the yards and homes of some villagers residing close to the river were flooded.
They were paid a visit later that Sunday by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) but by then the water had receded and no damage was recorded. Nonetheless, they were provided with cleaning supplies.
Chief Engineer at BK International Ghanie Shaw had told Stabroek News that since works began yesterday morning, they have managed to seal the breach and strengthen the river defence dam. He noted that the next phase of the project is to encage boulders and place them in front of the dam, a move that will significantly reduce the force of rising tides. “We have these large baskets that we will fill with boulders and place them to further strengthen the dam against forceful tides,” Shaw explained.
Residents were upset at the flash flooding as it not only made persons unable to work but many were forced to engage in sanitisation activities after the accumulated water receded.
The CDC has been conducting a continuous assessment of the situation and has distributed cleaning supplies and food hampers to affected residents, but according to the flood victims, hampers cannot compensate for their loss of electrical appliances.
