Human failings are chiefly responsible for the floods

Jun 02, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
Each time we experience heavy rainfall with its attendant flooding we tend to hark back at the old days when flooding was not so severe or did not happen so frequently. Our coastal flooding is as a result of several factors, chief of which can be attributed to human failing.
In past times we had large tracts of lands that served as reservoirs and retained water until tide action took care of it all. However we used these lands for housing and in the capital we filled up canals for car parking and promenades. To me this action represented poor planning. To stop flooding we need to re-plan and re-zone our cities and villages. Indeed some areas are overpopulated to the extent that basic services are inadequate and we suffer as a result.
Then, our famous and most useful harbor bridge on the Demerara contributes to the siltation of the outfalls in the harbor from Friendship to Fort Groyne. To add insult to injury the previous administrations were not regularly desilting the outfalls and this has led to exceedingly slow run off of normal rainfall. Thus when we have unusual rainfall the flooding just cannot be prevented. Our problem is an engineering one and must be so addressed in due course. I guess that the incoming administration will lay plans to alleviate this situation and no doubt seek overseas funding to acquire suitable dredging equipment.
Finally after local elections the local governing bodies must be given the resources to take charge of drainage and irrigation works in their communities. They functioned well in the past and with more political awareness these days I feel they will do even better.
Cyril Walker

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