SPEND THE MONEY WISELY!

Jun 24, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The damage done to Georgetown by last weekend’s non- torrential rains provides reason why the one billion dollars that the government is assigning to help clean up the city and improve its drainage is not going to be enough.
The condition of Georgetown is a reflection of three decades of neglect by the City Council. It cannot be reversed overnight and not with one billion dollars.
But one billion dollars is a significant start. The government should see this one billion dollar as a means of doing something major and which can be sustained. It should spend this money wisely. It should only assume and responsibilities that it can sustain, rather than doing things only to find six months down the line it is back to square one.
The flooding of Georgetown after the briefest of downpours is as a result of poor drainage and inadequate storage. The reasons for the poor drainage are well known and not worth repeating here. The most overlooked problem is the need for reservoirs to hold water until such time as it can be discharged during low tide.
One billion dollars cannot clear all the primary and secondary drains in Georgetown. And even if it could, within six months, as has been done in the past, these drains will return to their stagnant state. A few years ago, the government at great cost to taxpayers, cleared what was a jungle in the Le Repentir Cemetery.
I do not hear any of the opposition politicians asking in the National Assembly how much was spent to clean the cemetery. But given the task involved that would have cost a fortune. Less than six months after the government gave a helping hand to the City Council, the cemetery was back as a jungle.
So the government has to be careful that it does not end up throwing monies on a duck’s back. Whatever the one billion is spent on must be sustained for years to come.
This is why it is best that the government use the one billion dollars to do a few things only. The first of these should be to clear the outfalls to the Demerara River. During the floods of 2005 an ingenious method was adopted to clear the Sussex Street koker. An excavator was mounted on a pontoon and floated into the koker channel. It then dug up the silt and this helped improve the run off by more than 200%.
All the drains cannot be cleaned. Flooding will still exist but at least, if the rate of run- off of water is doubled, the city would drain faster and people would understand and appreciate that instead of being under water for one day that can be cut to half a day if the outfalls are made more efficient.
The second area where the government should spend its money is to create some large reservoirs to collect water which can then be discharged into the Demerara River. There are not many spots available but there are reserves which can be used to create some reservoirs in some areas. There is also ninety acres of land at D’Urban Park which can store a great deal of water which can then be released into some of the primary drains when these are able to take in more water.
The Parade Ground is underutilized as a sporting facility. That too should be considered as a possible site for a holding pond even if it is for a few years until such time as the drainage in the city improves. There is also land available at Thomas Lands and Eve Leary which can be used to create storage ponds for holding water.
The best way of increasing the storage capacity of water in Georgetown is of course to deepen the various canals. But that is going to lead to riot since persons were encouraged to squat along these canals and have been using these canals as their septic tanks for years now. For those canals which can be easily deepened, then this should be done.
This one billion dollars that the government is spending is a pre-electioneering tactic. The PPP hopes to show that it can, if given the chance, take care of the problems of Georgetown in the same successful way that it has done in Guyana. But it must also realize that if it does not spend this one billion dollar wisely, then people will complain and instead of gaining votes, the PPP will lose face in Georgetown.

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