Floodwaters have receded in most regions after prolonged heavy rainfall on Friday.
Four regions had reported flooding especially in low-lying areas and up to yesterday, several communities in regions Three and Four were still under water due to the ongoing rainfall but generally, the water is receding.
Mayor Ubraj Narine told Stabroek News yesterday that some parts of Georgetown such as Alexander Village, Waterloo Street and a few other areas, are still flooded. He contended again that the Mayor and City Council did not have the resources to mitigate the flood experienced on Friday.
And although it has been accused of negligence by some government officials, the Mayor and City Council is currently working along with the Minister of Agriculture’s National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to drain affected areas.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha has called for better monitoring by the Mayor and City Council. He said that poor monitoring of the pumps and kokers was also a contributing factor towards the flooding in some areas. “In some of the affected areas, the drainage canals were clogged”, he told the Sunday Stabroek in a telephone interview.
The minister said that on Friday the NDIA had done some work to the drainage canals since they fall under its purview. He highlighted that because of the blocked drainage canals in Georgetown, the NDIA engineers had to clear them and as of yesterday people have been getting relief.
Mustapha also called on the city councillors to have persons on standby to operate the pumps in a timely manner as well as to open the kokers.
The minister said that some time ago, he had placed personnel from NDIA to monitor pumps and kokers in the city but that this had come to an end. Following Friday’s flooding due to poor monitoring of these structures, he has once again requested that this system be put back in place.
Meanwhile, Civil Defence Commission (CDC) Public Relations Officer, Patrice Wishart, reported that several communities in regions Three and Four are still impacted due to ongoing rainfall but waters are receding. He noted that New Amsterdam in Region Six has also been impacted.
According to Wishart, the CDC has not received any reports of households being affected, however, they are on standby to render assistance if necessary.
Some communities he explained that are impacted are Malgre Tout and Meer Zorgen, in Region Three, while communities in La Bonne Intention and South Ruimveldt, Albouystown and Kitty in Georgetown have been affected.
Stabroek News visited some areas yesterday around Georgetown to see the still impacted areas. Some of those areas were, First Street, Alexander Village; Aubrey Barker Road, South Ruimveldt; and parts of East and West Ruimveldt.
