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Mar 01, 2012 Editorial
Guyana knows two weather conditions—rain and sun. While the sun has not been known to create some of the extreme temperatures recorded in even temperate countries, the rains have been very heavy, sometimes causing floods as was the case in 2005. But even then these rains have not been as devastating as they have been known to be in many other countries.
However, we in Guyana can only compare conditions with what we have known. We can only talk about floods without knowing that in some countries flood waters cover the tops of houses and force some people to seek safety in trees. These things have never happened in Guyana.
In fact, the worst conditions would occur on the coastal plains where most of the land is below sea level and drainage is dependent on the tides.
Given these factors, one would expect that the authorities would pay special attention to drainage. Georgetown in the distant past was well drained. The people who designed the city constructed huge waterways that served as reservoirs for water that tended to flood the land at the same time when the tides were high.
There were huge canals running through the city. There were two canals along North Road, along East Street, along Avenue of the Republic, and along Lamaha Street. Perhaps people in the previous administration never recognized the uses of these canals; perhaps we were having a shift in weather conditions where it rained but not excessively enough to cause flooding and create discomfort for the residents of Georgetown.
There were canals in the south of the city in places such as La Penitence. The canals along Sussex Street and along Princes Street are still there although they are smaller than they once were. They still serve the same purpose although their capacity has been drastically reduced because of the wanton dumping of garbage by the residents in their vicinity, and by the lack of maintenance by the authorities.
The decision makers caused some of those canals to be filled, in one case to make a car park, in another to make a mall and in some cases, to fashion roadways . The result is that the capacity of the city to collect excess water until the tides receded and allowed the water to flow into the Demerara River and into the Atlantic Ocean.
There were higher than normal rains over the past forty-eight hours. The city with its limited capacity to drain water was soon flooded. Many streets, in fact the vast majority, were under water. Some had been transformed into lakes but they had to be negotiated by people and vehicles alike.
The scene forced memories of 2005 when almost all of coastal Guyana was flooded and when the country suffered some US$6 billion in agricultural losses and when people died from the dreaded leptospirosis—a disease that had previously been unheard of by the general population.
Since then people have been very wary of water on the land given the septic tanks, the animal pens that are now a feature in the city and in some cases, the latrines that should not be in the city. They are also wary of the garbage piles that seem to be growing every day given the failure of the city council to effectively dispose of the garbage
But there is another side to the coastal flooding. The government in the wake of the floods of 2005 and 2006, decided to expend large sums of money to clear the drains and outfall channels. It also spent money on drainage pumps which were deployed at strategic locations.
It would seem that the drainage programmes have been a success in the villages because there have not been many reports of flooding. The same cannot be said of the city. It may be that the city cannot execute some of the programmes that it should with the result that it may have opted to sacrifice its garbage programme.
The cold reality is that the city will always be under water whenever it rains heavily and this should not have been. Will the authorities reverse the decision to fill some of the canals? Highly unlikely.
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