Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha yesterday accused the Georgetown Mayor and City Council of neglecting its responsibilities in ensuring that operators at drainage infrastructure across the city are always on duty.
The accusation comes on the heels of reports to the Minister that sluices and pumps in the city were not being manned and were inoperable.
“We’ve seen on numerous occasions, moreso during the rainy seasons, the ineffective management of many of these pumps and sluices by the M&CC. Today I received reports that the sluices at Ruimveldt south, La Penitence south, and Cowan Street in Kingston were not open. Also, the pumps at Cowan Street and Lamaha Street were not on even though the sluice was not open. There were no operators around. The pump at Ruimveldt south had to be turned on since the sluice operator was not there,” Mustapha yesterday said in a statement.