[www.inewsguyana.com] – As the country braces itself for high rainfall during the next 72 hours, Government has put into effect short term solutions to alleviate flooding in sections of Georgetown and lower East Coast Demerara (ECD).
Earlier today, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder met with key stakeholders from the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s – Work Services Group (WSG) and Force Account Unit (FAU), to strategize options in an effort to remedy the situation.
With immediate effect the FAU will undertake the excavation works to clear blockages at Riverview, East Bank Demerara. In addition, the department will render assistance to the M&CC to repair the northern gate of the La Penitence koker.
During the meeting, the Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, revealed that only two of their six pumps- which are used to drain water off of the land when the sluice gates are closed- were functional. It was agreed that FAU will repair the Sussex Street pump, which is expected to be operational by this evening.
Further, it was discussed that NDIA will conduct conditional assessment on the remaining three pumps, with a view of having them repaired and functional within the next 24-36 hours.
Also present at the meeting were: Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, George Jervis; Chief Executive Officer of NDIA, Lionel Wordsworth; Acting Chief Engineer –MPI, Ron Eastman; Coordinator of WSG -MPI, Geoffrey Vaughn; Head of the FAU – MPI, Lawrence Mentis; Director of Solid Waste- M&CC, Walter Narine, Acting Town Clerk, Sharon Harry-Munroe and Walter Willis, Technical Advisor to Hon. Patterson, among others.
Ministers Patterson and Holder are expected to meet again tomorrow, June 1, 2015 to review the progress made thus far.
Oh I guess this flooding is the PPPC fault too! What will the coalition do to prevent this flooding from happening now??? I thought the clean up exercise was supposed to have stopped all of this? I’m looking forward to the next few years of governance and keeping a keen eye on how things turn out!
Guyanese! Please stop fooling yourselves. Georgetown is no longer fit to live in.
You all have to move to higher grounds. You have to move to places like the Linden Hwy and upwards. Start building your way towards Linden Town and making your way towards the interlands. The proplem with Guyanese no one wants to leave the bright lights and start over.