Rain, littering and floods

Dec 11, 2008 Editorial

Now that the rains have indubitably arrived in what is supposed to be our season of merriment and joy, the early indications from the first downpours seem to indicate that we have not really learnt anything from either our history or our experience.

Even though millions of dollars have been spent this year – on top of the billions since the “great floods” of 2005 – to clear the canals and outfalls that are supposed to drain off excess water, several sections of Georgetown and villages on the East and West Coasts of Demerara were yet inundated.

Apart from the loss of business, suffered whenever the downtown sections are flooded, there are the health hazards posed to the citizenry when they are forced to wade through overflowing drains – not to mention canals that are actually open sewers.

In the villages, the business loss is suffered by the sugar estates, which depend on clear canals. Then, of course, there is the aesthetic dimension – or rather, the loss of it — as large swathes of what was once termed the Garden City of the Caribbean are transformed into putrid lakes with floating mounds of Styrofoam and other detritus of “modern” human revelry. Is this the tourist attraction we are touting? And the two circumstances are not unconnected.

Conceding that more can always be done to keep the canals free of the inevitable accumulation of silt occasioned by running water, much of the blockage to our drainage system that affects us, the citizenry, so negatively is actually caused by our own slovenly habits.

Maybe the floods are poetic justice. Whenever we reflexively point fingers and scream shrilly at “the authorities” for once again “allowing” our surroundings to become so degraded, we ought to reflect on our own contribution to the literal mess.

We, as a people, pay very little heed to the imperative that we ought to keep our environment clean and unpolluted.

We boast about the proliferation of fast food outlets as “development,” but yet drop or throw the Styrofoam cups and coated cardboard boxes, in which they insist on serving their offerings, onto the ground or into drains, much as we used to do with our banana skins in the “old days.”

It would not have appeared that we have insisted on our own development. Yet, we all know, either from our own experiences or through the movies, that people in “developed” societies do not just drop their garbage at their feet. There are consequences.

But the sad reality of our situation is that we seem incapable of appreciating those consequences, even when they impact on us personally — as has happened once again in the flooded streets.

The ire of most of us must have been raised in righteous indignation when Prime Minister Thompson of Barbados insulted squatters, widely known to be dominated by illegal Guyanese, for bringing their “bad habits” to Barbados.

He insisted that Barbados was going to maintain its standards. But if we are to be objective, Prime Minister Thompson was only speaking the truth, and outlining a policy that is the only sensible one to follow in these matters.

Just as with the flotsam and jetsam of Styrofoam clogging our culverts and canals year after year, due to our bad habits, squatting on Government reserves intended to facilitate drainage operations will once again precipitate flooding in communities across Guyana in the coming months.

As a people, if we expect to develop to a stage where flooding is to become a thing of the past, we will have to pull up our socks and rectify our shortcomings.

Because of our unique topography, where we are a veritable basin bounded by a “backdam” (to keep out the conservancies of water) and a seawall (to keep out the Atlantic Ocean), even the best designed and executed civil engineering plan will be constantly challenged.

Yes, we must be vigilant and insist that “the authorities” execute their mandate and excavate and clear the drainage canals.

But, surely, it is not too much to ask ourselves that we develop the small discipline needed not to contribute to the creation of that same blockage. Flood prevention, like charity, must begin at home.

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