Kwakwani, Ituni in desperate plight

Jul 19, 2010 News

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Region 10 flooding…

…as emergency workers battle to find solutions

…Coomacka waters subsiding

By Leonard Gildarie

Flood waters, brought on by heavy spring tide and rains, have subsided considerably in the Region 10 area, especially at Coomacka, but authorities are working against the clock to now bridge a section of the Ituni-Kwakwani road, which is under several feet of water.
Light traffic could be expected to start using that road within 48 hours, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud said yesterday.
Economic activity at the Kwakwani, Berbice River and Ituni areas are at a virtual standstill with trucks of cut logs stranded, unable to use the trail which leads to Linden, and minibuses turning back.
Yesterday, a delegation of government officials led by Persaud, and accompanied by drainage and other agricultural officials, visited the Coomacka and Three Friends community, located on the banks of the Demerara River and which felt the brunt of the flood waters last week. A fly-over of the Ituni/Kwakwani road was also conducted where a section of the road was clearly seen to be cut off by waters.
Persons wanting to cross are paying almost $1,000, residents and businessmen have reported.
Although the waters at Coomacka have gone down noticeably, several of the yards are still underwater.
But an excavator rushed to the area has cleared several drains and a new channel is being created to take excess waters to the Demerara River. The excavator, the Minister announced yesterday, will remain in the Region 10 area for another two weeks.
Many of the residents have lost crops and heavily impacted by the closure of the Ituni/Kwakwani roads.
According to Region 10’s Chairman, Mortimer Mingo, the administration has engaged Bosai Minerals and the company is to come up with proposals within days to create their own channels to move waters from their bauxite mining areas. Residents blamed the company for allowing waters from the mines to enter Coomacka, further compounding the situation.
There were mountains of sand, washed down from the mines, which blocked channels in the Coomacka area. These were being removed by the excavator yesterday.

Following requests by the residents, a three-person committee was also authorized by the Minister to make recommendations for work to be done by the excavator.
During the visits to Coomacka and Three Friends community, Minister Persaud disclosed that government agencies are working to ensure that key supplies like medicine are available.
The government is also working with the disaster response unit, the Civil Defense Commission, which was in the area recently to assess the situation,
Already, Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, was in the Coomacka area, distributing food supplies to the stricken residents.
Within a week, agricultural officials will be in the area to assist farmers, the official promised.
Persaud urged residents to consider the possibilities, especially with the growing evidence of damage by climate change, to move from the danger areas and also consider building homes on stilts.
Many of the homes in the Coomacka area are built flat and these were the hardest hit.
At one home, children were seen rowing to the roadway from the yard. A few feet away, in the backyard, the swollen Demerara River was a threatening sight.
According to residents, the waters, while it may have risen to the banks in the past because of the high tide, have never risen this way before.
Government has had several meetings on the Region 10 situation to determine assistance, Persaud said.
On Saturday, Prime Minister, Sam Hinds, who was performing the duties of the President, met with the CDC and several of the Ministries to determine assistance and other works.
According to Mingo, through the government, mined-out lands returned to the state are being processed and these could soon be available to residents of Region 10 who are interested in moving to higher grounds.
In the Kwakwani area, residents again are despairing. They have been hit by a double whammy.
Only a few weeks ago, heavy rains flooded the mining community, not an unusual thing, forcing a pontoon that is being used to ferry timber trucks from the east bank of the Berbice River to the other side, to abandon its work.
Economic activity was virtually stalled and a government team, led by Persaud, authorized the building of a dam on the western bank.
However, waters in the swollen Berbice River, which went down, rose again, and now with the Ituni/Kwakwani out, it has become a desperate situation with many concessions located along the trail.
Businesses in the Ituni and Kwakwani area are also heavily dependent on the logging and bauxite operations.
“I am really worried and frustrated by these problems. We owe the banks, and now the road is impassable. People on our backs for their monies,” a logger complained. Several of his trucks are stranded in the Berbice area.
Yesterday, Minister Persaud said that the government is worried over the stoppage to the logging operations because of the flood waters in the Kwakwani area and the road problems. On an average, 10 trucks with logs would use the Ituni/Kwakwani trail to Linden. In addition, it is a key link to the many farms, concessions and to Rusal operations at Aroaima and Kwakwani.
“Government is monitoring the situation closely and teams to assess the situation are being sent out,” he said.

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