– 3 pumps need maintenance
By Indrawattie Natram
The Christmas celebrations for residents of Region Two had to be halted due to flood water flowing into their homes. Christmas morning found many residents draining and bailing water out from their lower flats due to excessive rainfall and poor drainage and irrigation within the Region.
Despite numerous complaints made by residents of Lima, Hampton Court, Devonshire Castle and Windor Castle to the Region Two Administration, many houses and rice fields remain inundated with water.
Residents have since become frustrated as their concerns are treated as irrelevant by authorities in charge and they are loosing thousands daily.
Residents of Lima said they are very concerned that the Lima outfalls remain uncleaned and up to late yesterday operators for the excavators were not on duty. Instead there were two excavators on a pontoon stationed at Capoey. Reports are that the same pontoon and excavators were to have started desilting the Lima outfalls on December 24.
Meanwhile, Region Two Chairman Devanand Ramdatt who was seen on site yesterday, said that he continues to monitor the drainage system and make necessary recommendations to the REO and engineers.
Ramdatt said he has visited several areas where pumps and sluices were inspected. He added that he has observed that several outfalls were clogged.
“Recommendations were made to authorities (including the REO) through numerous emails to have the Pantoon and excavators removed from capoey, moved to Lima then traveled to Hampton Court, then Windsor Castle clearing outfalls hence assist in the the draining of water from residents’ land,” Ramdatt said.
The Regional Chairman said it is very unfortunate that such delays have prevented one day work hence more residents are under water. He however promised that the findings from his visits will be communicated to the Chairman & CEO of NDIA since the pontoon and two excavators are contracted by NDIA to clear outfalls.
Currently the sluice at Plantation Andrews is inoperable due to a defective door occurred some two weeks. This is said to be creating additional pressure on the Westbury sluice. Many residents in that area said they reported the Regional Executive Officer (REO) Rupert Hopkinson about it and he promised to follow up.
Visits to the pump stations revealed that fuel continues to be supplied late which is preventing long hours of pumping.
When asked about the status of the pumps, the Chairman said three of the six pumps needed repairing.
He said at Cozier close to the Pomeroon areas, two pumps are presently working, while at Charity the pump is not functioning. At Devonshire Castle one out of two pumps are working. In Villages such as Hampton Court, Lima, Anna Regina, Three Friends and Capoey one pump is working. The pump at Taymonth Manor is also reportedly not working.
---
