An inundated city

Jan 17, 2014 Editorial

The rains came with a vengeance on Tuesday and as has become the norm, the city flooded. There was water covering almost every street to the extent that motorists had to drive carefully, if only to avoid the ditches that lined the roads.
The water rushed into homes and destroyed carpeting and furniture. In one home there was as much as ten inches of water in the bottom flat. Schools closed their doors for the second time in as many months and people had to wade to get to and from their homes.
People grumbled and the government took aim at City Hall, blaming it for the deterioration of the city. And indeed it would appear that City Hall needed to be blamed, because this constant flooding of the city is something new. People who lived in the city almost all their lives now say that they could not recall the city being flooded after what they called a relatively mild shower.
The truth was that the Dutch who designed Georgetown recognised that it was below sea level and that there needed to be a network of canals to trap excess water when it rained and the tide was in. When the tide went out, the sluices at the mouth of the canals were raised and the city drained. It was an efficient system that worked for close to two centuries.
That the city is flooding today suggests that the new rulers have disturbed the equation that saw the city enjoying that delicate balance between the tides and water on the land. In the 1970s the government filled some of the canals on the advice of the present-day engineers. These engineers contended that the city was growing and that there was need for the roads to accommodate the growing number of cars.
Coincident with this decision was the deterioration of the discipline that governed city life. From placing their refuse in containers, people began to throw their litter into the streets and drains. Homeowners refused to clean the inter-lot drains and before long these disappeared. Water no longer collected in the inter-lot drains and so remained on the land to compound the volume that could not find its way into the now non-existent canal.
In many societies, having been bitten by the flood bug, people would have spearheaded a campaign to restore their city. Guyanese are a different breed; as a people they expect to see their elected leaders doing what needs to be done by way of city restoration.
City Hall for some time has been calling for money to manage its affairs. Inflation had taken a toll, so more money had to be found for pay increases. At the same time homeowners were not too keen to pay higher rates and taxes; they fought any pay increase tooth and nail. To crown it, they had a government to support them.
One thing often leads to another. In this case the floods led to many things. Culturally, we bury our dead after a funeral service. The floods put paid to that cultural activity. Should we consider cremation? Perhaps we should because the cemetery, once a picturesque location that adorned stamps and postcards, is now a miniature jungle.
There was a time when we covered tombs with garbage, now we cannot even access fresh tombs, because the canals that border the cemetery are weed-choked and blocked in some cases. This past week many people, among them a retired Deputy Police Commissioner and a prominent communicator, could not be laid to rest after their funeral services.
That is only one aspect. The flooded cemetery is a breeding ground for diseases with water leaching from tombs and graves. The time may be now for people to effect a cultural change. Strange as this may seem, Guyanese leave these shores for foreign lands and immediately they adopt a change in attitude.
The government spent $42 million clearing some of the canals and outfalls. Had this not been done, one is left to imagine what the state of the city would have been.
We must now contemplate measures to end flooding.

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An inundated city

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