The Government has a “comprehensive” plan to deal with water resource management and a big expansion in pumps and pumping stations is envisaged.
“We have a comprehensive plan to deal with water resource management……We have already surmised that we need a massive expansion of pumps and pumping stations across the coast line,” President Irfaan Ali said on Thursday.
He was at time responding to a concern raised from a member of the Private Sector during a discussion held at State House with the Private Sector and other stakeholders.
“…..The other question I want to raise Mr President is the one with storm water. We see this rain is falling non-stop….I am not seeing a programme relative to the studies dealing with storm water. How are we going to control the storm water? We need catchments to hold the water because we are below sea level…..Is there going to be a study? Is there going to be a programme where we are going to build lakes or canals or drainage, whatever they are to hold this water?” the Private Sector member and asked.
Apart from having a comprehensive plan, Ali said that an integrated water resource management committee will deal with storm water, ground water and surface water, in a “holistic” manner.
Ali explained that with 80 percent of the country’s population living on the coastland and the industrial development in the city, the Government has to utilize technology to take water off the land. “And that is a more dynamic pumping system…. That is going to be part of the integrated water resource management framework that we’re working on developing,” he said.
He added that there is a huge demand for land for housing and agriculture on the coastland and almost 100 per cent of the lands available for housing has already been utilised. “We’re at a critical point in terms of land that should be left for the wet zone, land that is available for agricultural development,” Ali said.
Critics have questioned the concreting and paving that is occurring all across the city, a prime example being the embankment along the Lamaha Street canal running all the way from Irving Street to Waterloo Street.
Similarly, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo noted that the storage area for water is being utilised because of the “pressure” for housing.
For instance, the Hope Canal, had it not been built, Jagdeo said the entire East Coast of Demerara and Region Five would have been threatened.
“When we started building the Hope Canal because we recognised that if every rainy season, we had to release water into the Mahaica Creek it would flood the whole of Region Five. Millions of dollar of losses. US$$30 million one year. It costs us about US$16 million. So, in a single year, loss from flooding could pay back for the Hope Canal,” he said.
The Hope Canal channels excess water from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) but hydrologists and engineers have argued in the past that had the EDWC been properly maintained there may have been no need for the Hope Canal.
