I am no engineer, I am only using common sense

Jan 23, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I have read several articles as regards to the most efficient way to drain the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) especially at a time of very heavy rains, which could threaten to overtop, and/or break the Conservancy Dam, as it did not long ago, in 2005, damaging almost the whole of Region 4, necessitating the release of water into the Mahaica River, and eventually into the Mahaicony River, with the terrible loss of crops and livestock to the farmers living there.
How the farmers, in especially those two Riverain areas in Mahaica/Mahaicony, could take those constant losses, and still come back and continue to grow crops is unbelievable and nothing short of a financial and mental miracle.
If Government does not think it is a good idea to take Mr. Malcolm Ali’s suggestion, of modifying the Land of Canaan (LOC) 5-Door sluice, for the doors to be able to lift, to drain faster from the bottom, in an emergency, and then the doors could be closed, and continue to act as a spillware, when the emergency is over, then I would like to suggest the following;-
A) We build a new 5- or 7-Door sluice arrangement, just north of the present 5-Door LOC spillware/spillway type sluices. These doors will be made to lift in an emergency and it should forever solve the problem.
B) It would appear that to build the Hope Canal may not be an efficient operation for several reasons. Below I will try to show some of the Positives and Negatives of the three systems. And please remember I am no engineer, I am only using common sense, so don’t criticize me for trying to help, especially you “blog” writers.
Options
A) Redesigning the 5-Door LOC sluices.
B) Building a new 5- or 7- Door Sluice, just slightly North of the present 5-Door LOC Sluices.
C) Building the proposed Hope Canal.
The re-Designing the 5-Door LOC Sluices to lift from the bottom is definitely;-
Positives
1) The most cost saving way to go.
2) This change will be the fastest to accomplish of the three proposed options.
Negatives
None particularly that I could see, only to say if the changing of the design of the sluice doors could be done easily, with the water up against the doors, and if the change could be done safely, without any damage to the present structure, then I am sure this is a good option. I am sure it would not be difficult to achieve both.
Building a new 5- or 7- Door sluice structure, with a diversion outlet from the Conservancy Canal, slightly North of the present LOC 5-Door Spillway sluice, for the doors to be able to lift, and so give for an emergency, the fastest discharge possible.
Positives
1) This new arrangement, should cost far less, maybe more than 1/3 to 1/4 less, than building the Hope
Canal design, especially as a near similar sluice arrangement will have to be built at the Atlantic Ocean end.
2) The Demerara River should comfortably take off the heavy discharge, without overflowing its banks like the
Mahaica/Mahaicony rivers.
3) The control of the Door operations, will be better handled and visible, in that high traffic LOC area, and would not have to be opened and closed several times for tides, and not be subject to the operator falling asleep, after taking a drink, and not being able to go, or forgetting to open or close the sluice doors, as happens all over the country, where sluices are not in high people-traffic areas. The Hope Canal at the Atlantic Ocean end could have that problem.
Negatives
This is not really a negative, but the level of the water would drop faster near the discharge or Demerara River end, and will take some time to reduce at the furthest Mahaica River end, which is the same at present anyhow, while the draft near the doors and some distance along both banks of the inlets and outlets will be terrific, and will require strengthening to avoid collapsing the side walls, a good distance along both banks of the inlets and outlets.
The building of the proposed Hope Canal
Positives
1) None really, only that it would take off water from a little higher up than from the LOC Demerara River end, but because it would have to rely on tides at the discharge sea end, any small positive would end up to be a giant negative.
2) There would be some nice water to drink and to irrigate crops along the way.
3) A lot of contractors will make a lot of money on this Hope Canal option, but not on the other options.
Negatives
1) This proposed new Hope Canal design will be very expensive, and I agree it would take far more than US$15 Million or G$3 Billion to complete.
I do hope that we would not see any bridges over this 80-ft wide Canal, at say the Railway Embankment Road, and across the main East Coast Highway, less than 75 ft wide, because it would make no sense to make a Canal 80ft wide and then in several areas, it is closed in to 40ft or so, seriously restricting the flow of water. I see this all over Guyana. I guess we are third world people, and can’t help it.
2) The big negative is that it would rely on sea tides to have drainage, cutting the drainage time to 12 hours instead of 24 hours.
3) The opening and the closing of the sluice doors, especially during an emergency, several times day and night, is
fraught with danger, with the sluice operations away from high human traffic area, to make sure that the doors are open and shut on time, to offer maximum drainage time.
4) People would find it difficult to cross from one side of the Canal to the other side, as the 80-ft width, would make it very costly for them to build bridges, in areas where Govt. may not be putting a bridge along the 10-mile long route.
I would very much like Mr. Malcolm Ali, who I think is the most competent person on this subject, to
reply and let us know his thoughts on this proposal, to build a new 5- or 7-Door Sluice arrangement at Land Of Canaan, not far from the existing 5-Door, which I think will completely solve the problem and forever stop our farmers from losing their livestock and crops, especially Rice, in the Mahaica/Mahaicony area.
I also think Mr. Malcolm Ali, a Guyanese, who is a brilliant engineer, and has experience all over the world, is the most capable person to hire and give the contract to -supervise the building of a new 5- or 7-Door sluice arrangement at LOC, especially having successfully supervised the 7-Door Abary sluice, very early in his career, many moons ago.
It is extremely important to find a way to reduce the height of the East Demerara Water Conservancy quickly, in an emergency flooding, so as to avoid any severe damage to the Conservancy dam and to crops and livestock. It is long overdue for the Government to stop the suffering and losses almost every year, to the hundreds of farmers and their families, who live in the Mahaica/Mahaicony Riverain areas.
Looking at all the positives and negatives, the proposed Hope Canal Project will not solve the problem, and billions of dollars will be wasted.
The worst thing is that the farmers in the Mahaica/Mahaicony areas will continue to suffer. This must be their lot in life.
Patrick Pereira, MS
Rice Farmer

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