Heavy rain yesterday morning caused deep flooding in parts of the city giving a taste – as on Tuesday – of the plight facing large parts of the country.
The water receded quickly after the rain ended but not without flooding stores and households and dislocating pedestrians.
As on Tuesday, there was serious flooding in the Bourda Market which left several stalls closed and forced other stallholders to operate their businesses with rain gear.
A walk through of the marketplace revealed intense flooding in some sections.
Several other areas around the city such as Regent, King and Wellington streets were also affected by the flooding.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha after visiting several drainage pumps and sluices asked that the Georgetown Mayor and City Council work along with the Ministry to better the situation.
In a post on the Ministry’s Facebook page, the minister highlighted that the Hydrometeorological Department had announced the recorded amount of rainfall yesterday to be between 2.5 and 3 inches.
The minister said despite the rainfall it should not be a case that the city floods whenever it rains, and as such asked that an investigation be launched to determine the origin of the problem.
Mustapha contended that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and the Ministry of Agriculture along with the Government of Guyana are doing their utmost to put systems in place but condemned the City Council as he said it was not doing its part.
He said that engineers on Tuesday night found that the sluice at the Ruimveldt location was not in operation as the operator was absent. He added that no member of the City Council was present doing checks to ensure the pumps and sluices were being operated.
The minister said that people’s lives are being made uncomfortable because of blocked alleyways and the lack of supervision of the pumps and sluices. He said that it is his intention to meet with all his engineers and assign additional engineers to the city to monitor the pumps.
Last evening, an update on the status of the three pumps that were out of operation earlier yesterday, revealed that two were up and running.
The two were identified as the Cowan Street and Commerce Street pumps. The Riverview pump is to be fixed shortly.
