Georgetown flooded after Koker collapse

From Guyana Chronicle edited.

Damaged Koker in Georgetown.

THE malfunctioning door of the koker at Water & Cowan Streets in Kingston, Georgetown, which engineers of the City Council had identified for repair just last week, collapsed yesterday during the afternoon high tide, causing extensive flooding of areas such as Tiger Bay in North Cummingsburg, Thomas Lands, Eve Leary, along the Lamaha Street canal, and as far as Campbellville.

Main & Lamaha Sts. Flooded

President Donald Ramotar, accompanied by Public Works Minister Robeson Benn; Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee; Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud; and Minister within the Local Government Ministry Mr. Norman Whittaker, visited the site of the damaged koker and toured the Kingston area to assess the extent of the flooding and initiate remedial plans to address the situation.

Engineers and other personnel from the Public Works Ministry and the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority, assisted by their counterparts from BK International Limited, were engaged in preparations to initiate rehabilitative works to alleviate flooding in the city.

Public Works Minister Robeson Benn told the media present that this was the second highest spring tide on record, and that equipment and materials were being brought to the site to control the situation when the water receded within two hours.

Kingston residents spoke to the President during his visit. They claimed this was their third experience of being inundated by sea water occasioned by high tide negotiating the faulty koker door.

The President assured the residents that measures would be put in place to have the situation under control. 

Opposition calls for long-term strategy to counter vicious flooding cycle

The Opposition has called on the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration to implement a national strategy to break the cycle of flooding that has been repeatedly plaguing all the regions of the country in recent years.

A Partnership for National Unity A Partnership for National Unity pointed out that the December-January-February rainy season, when the heaviest rains seem to occur, has become a time of annual anguish for most of the population. Despite the high cost of damage to homes, loss of crops and spread of water-borne and vector-borne disease over the years, the administration has never implemented a national, long-term, comprehensive counter-flooding strategy. It seems inclined to pursue the short-term tactic of providing relief and compensation to flood victims rather than the long-term task of improving the infrastructure to prevent flooding.

Farmers and other residents all across the country – from along the Aruka River in Region 1; to the Pomeroon River in Region 2; Canals Polder in Region 3; Mahaica River in Region 4; Mahaicony River in Region 5 and Yakusari in the Black Bush Polder in Region 6 – are suffering from the current floods which started in early January.

Hinterland residents still remember how the floods – at Waramadong in Region 7, at Mahdia in Region 8; in the Rupununi in Region 9 and at Kwakwani in Region 10 – also wrought havoc with their lives in 2010 and 2011. No part of the country seems has ever been safe from the scourge of floods.

The system of coastal conservancies and canals has been compromised by the decline of the sugar plantation system and the rise of new housing schemes and townships.  This has been aggravated by poor solid waste management; neglect of the drainage and irrigation infrastructure, including kokers, the deliberate destruction of drainage canals to facilitate construction of houses by ‘dry-weather’ contractors and rising sea levels owing to global warming.

APNU pointed out that the PPPC administration, after more than 19 years in office, cannot blame anyone but itself for the repetitive, annual disastrous flooding. Climate change and rising sea levels will not disappear overnight and the administration has to be aware that – at least since the catastrophic ‘Great Flood’ of 2005 – weather patterns will never be the same again.  It must be clear that the current ad hoc measures to provide relief and compensation to victims cannot solve the problem of annual floods. The PPPC administration must formulate a strategic plan to protect our people from this yearly distress.