Latest update November 8th, 2024 1:00 AM
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Floods hit Kwakwani
A woman transports her daughter on this flooded waterfront street in Kwakwani.
– supplies being rushed to 150 families
More than 150 families of Lamp Island and Kwakwani area, Region Ten, have been hard hit as the Berbice River swelled its banks over the last few days.
Government yesterday announced that it was moving food and other critical supplies to the residents whose homes on especially both banks are covered by waters said to be even more than in recent years.
The Kwakwani front road is totally covered forcing residents and businesses on the east bank beginning to use the RUSAL’s road.
During a visit to the area yesterday, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, said that more supplies will be taken in tomorrow.
Government has been offering alternative lands to the residents of Lamp Island, who year after year have been affected whenever the Berbice River rises in that area.
That offer was again extended Thursday by Presidential Advisor, Odinga Lumumba, who also met with affected residents.
With the majority of the 4,000 residents involved in mining and forestry, there was no immediate evidence that these have been affected, the Minister said yesterday.
“It is clear that some areas have become uninhabitable,” Persaud said.
Already there are some reports of losses from some farms located nearer to the river.
Authorities said that the rising waters are not from rains but from drain off from the upper regions.
The immediate concern now is to take fresh water to affected residents.
According to the Minister, the water has been rising a week now.
In the past the worry was the crossing with high water affecting operations with logging operations forced to abrupt halt.
However, residents, with help from Government, had built up the problematic crossing on the western bank.
Overhead view of the area indicated that the entire waterfront is inundated. Several of the other roads, though soggy, are usable.
An assessment of the damage to agriculture crops and livestock is currently underway with the Ministry of Agriculture standing by to offer farmers help to restart their activities.
The Kwakwani flooding has come at a time when Region Nine has been stricken by flood waters.
A massive mobilization drive is underway in that region to ensure adequate food and fuel supplies for what has been describes as one of the worst flooding in years in that border area.
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