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Rupununi Flooding

Jun 08, 2011 Editorial

The entire Rupununi, and Lethem in particular, is in the throes of a massive crisis, literally precipitated by historic levels of rainfall. The Brazilians claim that it has been the heaviest rainfall since 1976. The majority of Guyanese who live on the Atlantic coast should be reminded that unlike the two rainy seasons they experience annually, our interior regions have one long, extended rainy season that lasts a full six months. With such persistent inundation, floods are endemic in the savannah villages such as Lethem that are essentially located in the lowland between the Pakaraima and Kanuku mountain ranges.

Lethem, while strategically located next to the Takutu River, so as to facilitate trade between Brazil and Guyana, is also near its junction with the Ireng River before it flows into Brazil to empty into the Rio Branco. What this means in concrete terms is that the Takutu brings down water from the Kanuku and other highlands south; the Ireng from the Pakaraimas, and it all converges into the Lethem area before moving into Brazil. When, as is the case for the last two weeks, torrential rains persist over the entire region – including the contiguous Roraima state of Brazil, Lethem inevitably experiences floods, as the Takutu swells beyond its banks.

What makes this episode as disastrous as it has become, is that when the Rio Branco in Brazil floods, the water from the Takutu has nowhere to go and then floods its banks even more precipitously.   Boa Vista, Roraima’s capital which lies on the Rio Branco, is now 80% flooded compared to Lethem’s 60%. And Boa Vista is much larger than Lethem.

The point of all this geographical information is that just as the settlements on our coast are in a trench formed by the seawall on the north and conservancies’ backdams in the south, and susceptible to floods during inordinate rainfall, so is Lethem because of its own peculiar location. Our authorities, therefore, must have arrangements in place both on the coast and in the interior to deal with the omnipresent contingency of flooding. The changes in global climatic conditions wrought by global warming and Brazilian deforestation will only exacerbate our precipitation levels.

It is our contention that Flood Response Plans should now be de rigueur for both the Coast and the interior regions. We do not mean just a written plan, but one integrated into a comprehensive National Disaster Preparation Plan overseen by our Civil Defence Commission (CDC), and funded adequately to execute its mission.

We have seen signs of such preparation on the coast. When late in May the first signs of flooding at Lethem were evident, the Regional Chairman was reported to claim that a Disaster Preparedness Committee had met. Seven sub-committees had been tasked to look “at issues like evacuation, shelter management, logistics, potable water and sanitation, health and hygiene, psychosocial issues and education awareness.”

While it was heartening to learn of the preparedness at the local level, it does appear that the national response, while prompt, has been quite ad hoc. Hordes of officials descending on the flood-stricken villages on ‘fact finding” missions are no substitute for the directed, comprehensive and timely response that a proper Flood Response Plan implies. For instance, the Brazilian Roraima state officials have declared a state of emergency and requested help from the armed forces. Emergency rations and fuel have been moved in by the national government.

While we are not as wealthy as Brazil, it is our belief that our authorities could also have done a better job of sensitising and organising the people on the coast to help their stricken brothers and sisters in Region nine. We witnessed a tremendous outpouring of solidarity and assistance on the coast in 2005, and this should be replicated. What we would not like to see replicated is the politicisation of the relief efforts, such as occurred in 2005. This was very unseemly and rather than bringing us together as a nation, just served to further divide us.

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