Latest update April 4th, 2025 5:09 PM
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Heavy rains scuttle Wismar Emancipation Day celebrations
Emancipation Day was a nightmare for several Wismar residents, whose homes were inundated because of relentless rainfall Sunday night and Monday morning.
“Imagine this is Emancipation Day, a national holiday, and some of us can’t even prepare a meal for our families, because our kitchens flooded out. Some of us cook with electric stoves, so we can’t take the chance to put them on and risk getting shocked.”
Hardest hit were the residents of Water Lily Road (Poker Street) and Third Alley.
Residents of Gardenia Street were also affected by the floodwaters, which is not usual according to reports. The peeved residents said that their woes began after the recent road and drainage works were completed.
According to them, their homes and yards which were never flooded, now flood because the new drains that were erected are higher than both the road and residents’ yards.
A resident of Gardenia Street, Dawn Westfield, said that she was shocked to wake up and find the lower flat of her house, under water. “I was asleep, and then I wake up suddenly, and feel my clothes and the bed wet, so I seh like I pee me bed. But when I get up and look around was sheer water in the house.”
“Every time it rains, is a different problem right now,” another resident sighed in resignation.
Informed sources said that the present persistent flooding whenever it rains is due to the fact that the main drains in the area have not been dug or desilted since last November.
It was claimed that no contracts for the desilting of the drains have been given out, even though it was customary to have the drains desilted quarterly.
The main drain running from Silver City to Cholmondeley Hill needs urgent work, residents said. They insisted that unless this drain is dug to facilitate the free flow of water that rushes down from the Blue Berry Hill, flooding would continue to plague residents of Poker Street and its environs.
The koker at the head of Poker Street is also in need of urgent rehabilitation, other residents pointed out.
Instead of awarding contracts to have these drains dug, an order was passed that no contracts for drainage works should be awarded until further notice- “That further notice never came,” a particularly peeved resident pointed out.
A few residents even made complaints to Ms Philomena Sahoye-Shury, and Minister of Works and Transport Robeson Benn.
However, nothing was ever done, residents said. “All that we hearing is, we gonna address this matter, we gonna address this matter’. Now this is our gift for Emancipation Day- to bail buckets of water out of your home.
Contracts for drainage and irrigation works are awarded through the Ministry of Agriculture. Efforts to contact Mr Lionel Wordsworth who reportedly has responsibility for the awarding of these contracts, yesterday, proved futile.
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