Regional Chairman Armogan makes about-turn on Liverpool flooding

Jan 13, 2014 News

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Despite extensive drainage work at several Corentyne communities, Regional Chairman David Armogan admits that there are still problems of flooding in areas such as Liverpool village.
The Regional Chairman was speaking at his end of year press briefing held on Friday at the Regional Administration’s Office in New Amsterdam.

In response to a question concerning the drainage and irrigation situation in Berbice, Armogan admitted that there were some problems in the Liverpool area, with flooding which particularly affected residents living in the low lying areas. He said that from the look of things, when he and a team visited the area it was clear that work was not done in the area for some time and the Region had to take the hands on look at the situation. He said that an excavator was dispatched to that area to help with the clearing of the interlocked drains in the communities.  He admitted that at times the problems are more than the Administration can handle.
“It is not that the channels are not being cleaned and cleared, but the place silts up very quickly,” Armogan said. He mentioned the No 43, Eversham and the Lesbeholden kokers are some of those that silt up quickly.  He said that within a matter of days if there is no water to flush the system, it silts up again.
“But people don’t understand and they say we are not doing anything. They say that we wait until the rains come to dig up the channels, but we have to wait until the rains come and there is enough water, or how are we going to flush the channels?  To flush those channels cost money.”

He said that the government is looking at the problems and is making efforts to solve them by looking at a few interventions. One is to increase the number of pumps in the Region. “For example, No   43 had one pump, now there are two; there was none at Eversham, but now there is one, there is also a pump at Rose Hall and the  No. 19 areas and the capacity of the pumps may have to be bigger,” the Regional Chairman said.
He identified Black Bush as one of the areas that gives the Region the most headaches when it comes to flooding. According to Armogan, there are problems with many of the outfalls in New Amsterdam and other areas that lead to flooding. He also mentioned that there were some 12 mini excavators which were recently brought to the area which are helping with the clearing of the interlocked drains.
Armogan’s comments about Liverpool appear to be in sharp contrast to a statement he had made in response to complaints in last week Monday’s Kaieteur News about flooding in that community.
In his response, Armogan had said that his visit to that area could not confirm what appeared in Kaieteur News as generalised flooding due to poor, if not the absence, of maintenance. He had also stated that that the areas under flood waters were “swamplands” and “marsh.”

When we come into the ground we are not seeing what these people are writing,” he had stated. ”The motive here is to make the Regional Administration look bad… I am here and I am not seeing anything of what is reported… I asked residents about the (Kaieteur News) picture of the flooded area but no one seems to know the place,” Armogan said.
Responding to Armogan’s statement, A Partnership for National Unity revealed that an APNU delegation had visited the NDC at Lancaster/Hogstye, Corentyne on Tuesday, January 7.
“Cursory reflection and a little investigation suggest that the Chairman’s inquiry of the flooding may have been a bit hurried while his assessment may be equally hasty,” the APNU statement said.
“First, the Kaieteur article suggests that the reporter had spoken to at least three named persons: Charles Smart, Patricia Blendman and O’Neil Leitch. Second, the reporter referenced “residents” at least six times to suggest that he had in fact spoken to several persons in the community and not just one, as the Chairman suggests. Similarly, the APNU delegation spoke to more than a dozen persons, including employees of the NDC who confirmed the widespread flooding – represented in the Kaieteur article. While there may be questions of detail, as per the source or real cause of the flooding, there is no doubt that the flooding was widespread and not confined to a small area in Liverpool and now receding.
The APNU delegation is similarly confused by what the Chairman means by “swamplands” and “marsh”. None of the flooded areas visited were outside the residential community, neither back lands nor foreshore. What was seen, were drainage canals without withholding dams that had long disappeared. Several trenches and drains were overgrown with reeds and brush, quite visible from the public road, indicating that they had not been cleaned for years.
“What they do suggest is systemic neglect and official dereliction well before the present Chairman’s tenure. And while we too, under other circumstances, would naturally see marsh and swamplands, the Chairman’s designation is revealing. Human beings could hardly be expected to live in such conditions.
“Certainly part of the problem is the absence of an NDC since the passing of the last Chairman a few years ago. Ironically, while the Minister of Local Government has seen fit to replace most of the existing NDCs in the Region with IMCs, Lancaster-Hogstye has been left to fend for itself. No official authority to either take responsibility or provide accountability – the best way, it seems, to exercise authority.”

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