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APNU moves to draft National Flood Control Plan
– Government needs to stop responding to floods in a haphazard manner
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has deemed the recent floods and that of last year a horrible manifestation of government’s management style and “supposed” commitment to the improvement of drainage and irrigation in the country.
Joseph Harmon
With their empirical evidence at hand, the coalition has made moves on their own to draft a plan geared towards effectively addressing the situation.
Just yesterday, a private meeting was held amongst members of APNU, and that of some of Guyana’s best engineers.
Present at the meeting were APNU’s Leader David Granger, Shadow Minister of Public Works and Telecommunications, Joseph Harmon, Shadow Minster of Natural Resources and the Environment and Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine .
The seasoned engineers included Bert Carter; Terry Fletcher; John Piggott; Horace Nurse and Edward Gonsalves.
This publication was informed that the discussions will soon lend towards a carefully drafted plan which will be proposed to the government. Roopnaraine has disclosed that it will not allow the project and its success to be dependent on the government. “The government will get a chance to see the proposal but we will not be depending on them for its implementation. We are not going to allow our hard work to be placed on hold as is the case with other situations.”
He added, “We are hoping that over the next few days we can put forward a plan which will address not only the concerns of residents in the city but also those in the country side. As you would know, the issues affecting the city may not be the same as those affecting the people of the Pomeroon area, so we are also looking to have the proposal tailored in such a way that it addresses not only the individual problems of each area but also similar issues.”
“We are aware as well that there are some large scale operations that are also having an impact, like the building of the East Bank road and the effects of these projects on the drainage system will be addressed. Some parts of the plan will have to be funded by the central government but we are looking to international agencies for funding as well. We will be in a position to say what is the way forward at the end of the meetings and the idea at this point is to formally constitute the group and establish a way of working which will constitute getting expert reports on the issues of each area.”
“What we have found with most areas is that there has been a collapse in the maintenance procedures and management at the local and regional levels. It is a complex issue and it is being dealt with. Soon we will be able to say what will be our approach in details. We have within the group, professional and highly experienced engineers that we plan to take advantage of.”
Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine
He also stated that ‘We had general presentations at our first meeting and a small group was already identified to look at the issues affecting Georgetown. Engineers are already examining the technical aspect of this proposal and we have already initiated a programme to get a documented report of the issues affecting the residents around the country.”
Harmon in reinforcing his colleague’s points expressed that APNU has long called for such a plan and has always been concerned with the effects of flooding and effective means of flood prevention.
“The government needs to stop responding to floods in a haphazard manner and commit to a National Flood Control Plan. Nevertheless, at the meeting we discussed Integrated Water Resource Management and also a sub topic of that; Flood Control Mitigation.”
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