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Not enough money, too much water
This was the scene at Vendors Arcade, Georgetown on Thursday, following overtopping from the Demerara River.
Thursday’s record high spring tide, which left more than 70 coastal villages under water, may force authorities to rethink their strategies in combating climate change and rising sea levels.
This was disclosed yesterday even as the Ministry of Agriculture says that squatting and blockage of access points to drainage facades and other areas have been proving a major problem.
Waters were high again yesterday, flooding yards and in some cases the roadways.
While the spring tides are expected to end tomorrow, it peaked on Thursday. The situation is a worrying one with a long term strategic sea defense plan being reviewed, government officials have said.
Already plans are in place to assist affected persons who lost their kitchen gardens and livestock.
Yesterday, commenting on the overtopping, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, along with Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth, said that the equipment have been diverted from farming areas to assist the sea defense efforts being executed by the Ministry of Public Works.
In addition to garbage pileup, the destruction of sea dams, facades and squatting were said to have compounded the situation.
According to Persaud, there has been difficulty in getting equipment in to some area, especially on the East Bank Demerara where some homes were built illegally on the river embankment.
From Pomeroon to Leguan Island to Berbice, there were overtopping.
What may have saved the situation is that some drainage structures had little water and this may have taken off some of the overtopping, considerably reducing what had the potential to have become a more serious situation.
This car owner at Sisters Village, West Demerara, contemplates his losses after his car was flooded on Thursday.
Some 4,000 homes were estimated to have flooded from waters which ran in city streets and left at least two feet of water in the Stabroek Market.
It was a frightening sight at the speedboat stelling at the market with waters rising about four feet to top the flooring there.
Yesterday, workers were attempting to build a sandbank at Craig, an area that is constantly under threat, but gave up after it reportedly broke away.
Already equipment have been sent to Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, to Berbice and to the East Bank Demerara.
Addressing the squatting, Persaud noted that arguments of not having land for a home can no longer be used especially with Government programmes with house lots.
But squatting just did not happen overnight. These must have been done with the knowledge of the local authorities.
On a short term, government will continue to shore up embankments and dams, the Minister assured.
However, Guyana may have to live with the very realisation that there is not enough resources and this may have to come from funds of the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
While the water was not as high as Thursday, residents from Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice again reported of flooding from the overtopping.
Yesterday, President Bharrat Jagdeo visited several areas including Friendship and Goed Fortuin.
Spring tides, said to be the highest in decades, left several communities under water for hours yesterday, and substantial damages as a result.
Losses are now being estimated in the millions of dollars for the thousands of residents caught off guard by the flood waters.
New Amsterdam, not known for flooding, was affected by overtopping on Thursday.
On Thursday, among the hardest hit areas was Sisters’ Village, West Bank Demerara, which left several cars submerged and water from the river running on the public road.
“I living here for over 40 years and never had flooding from the river. This hard,” cried a senior citizen whose roadside home was swamped and with her blocked drains, the water was slow in receding.
“There is little we can do to control something of this magnitude,” an official of the Sea and River Defence Unit had said.
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