IS OUR DRAINGE SYSTEM IMPROVING?

Dec 06, 2008 Editorial

It is impressive, quite impressive, that despite the much acclaimed Doppler radar not yet in operation, the local meteorological department, based on oceanic and atmospheric conditions, can forewarn the nation that higher than average precipitation is expected this rainy season.

Predicting weather patterns is a highly scientific process, which is not always 100 per cent accurate. Therefore, the local meteorological office can only give expectations in terms of anticipated percentages.

For example, there may be projections of a 20 per cent probability that rainfall would be higher than expected, or a 60 per cent probability of high-intensity rainfall.

These probabilities are confusing to the average layman, and therefore the technical aspects of the science need to be brought to the level where it can be better understood by the public, who are affected by the vagaries of the weather.

Many Guyanese still recall with trepidation the experience of 2005, when after a few hours of high intensity rainfall there was flooding along the coastland, a situation that led to the country’s worst natural disaster when the rains did not abate.

Farmers and those that depend on the land for a living are, of course, keenly attuned to the dangers of unfavourable weather patterns, since excessive rainfall can result in losses of crops and livestock.

On the other hand, the shortage of adequate rainfall poses problems for irrigation, which is very much needed in the dry season. The weather is therefore important to production, and, by extension, the economy.

While we cannot exert control over nature, we can try to attend to its negative effects, such as flooding. The degree to which such mitigation can be exercised is dependent on the resources at our disposal.

To its credit, the Government of Guyana continues to spend billions of dollars each year on drainage and irrigation.

Ever since the floods of 2005, this spending has increased tremendously, as the Ministry of Agriculture tries to guard against a repeat of that year when the drainage and conservancy management systems were unable to cope with deluge that descended upon the coastland.

Allocations have increased, allowing for a great amount of work to be done on outfalls, drainage canals and on the conservancy.

This year alone, some 1.7 billion dollars is reported to have been spent on drainage and irrigation, and some 700 million dollars is to be dedicated to drainage during this rainy season.

A contract has been signed to build an outlet from the conservancy to the Atlantic, thus reducing the risk of excess water having to be blown into the riverain communities during periods of excessive rainfall. Also, a number of new but costly pumps have been installed at key locations to hasten the drainage of the land.

But how much has all this investment impacted on the drainage capacity along the coast? We are constantly berated with reports that our country’s drainage system can only discharge the equivalent of 1.2 inches of rainfall per day.

Thus, if there is a higher level of rainfall, accumulation of water on the land is inevitable. Given all the investments that have taken place, including the purchase of long-armed excavators at a cost in excess of three hundred million dollars, the public ought to expect that by now the drainage system would have been much improved and capable of draining in excess of two inches of rainfall per day.

But can the system dispose of this amount of water in a twenty-four-hour period? Those entrusted with managing the country’s drainage canals need to give us an estimate of just what is the drainage capacity at present.

They also need to tell the nation what level of additional investment will be required to improve the drainage by another twenty-five per cent, and over what period this investment will be spread.

It is no longer assuring for the Minister of Agriculture, at the beginning of every rainy season, to speak about how much is being spent and what will be done.

The public needs guarantees that the billions that are being spent each year will make an appreciable difference in the discharge of water from the land.

More importantly, they need an update of what has become of the plans to dredge the mouths of our major creeks. The public is fully aware that we are in the age of climate change and that higher than average levels of rainfall are a real possibility.

What is needed is to learn the higher than average mitigation plans that are being implemented to deal with any uncertainty.

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