The drainage dilemma of Georgetown

Jul 27, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor;
The Kingston Citizens’ Task Force was initiated in August 2014 in response to a call by the then Minister of Local Government for citizen participation in the “Clean up My Country” Campaign. The work done by our group is well documented, and the record can be made available, should you so require.
Among the interventions made by our Group was a well formulated proposal for the improvement of drainage in Kingston. Unfortunately, however, this proposal was placed “on hold’ by the said Ministry, while Ministry personnel proceeded to apply the usual band aid solution through a team of un-supervised labourers.
As law abiding citizens our Group continued to highlight pertinent issues surrounding the clean-up of the Kingston Community in particular, the shoddy and incomplete work done by contractors on the de-silting of the Young Street canal at significant cost to Government. One contractor employed by the PPP Administration who did not complete his contract, was paid one point six million dollars; also the second contractor who also did not do a thorough job, and employed by the present government.
Whatever intervention the present Ministers of Infrastructure ordered was just plain rhetoric bordering on lies. The behaviour of previous Government officials and present government officials seem to us to be carbon copy of the same old way of treating citizens as pests – “na better the soft rice, na better the rice pop.” If we are asked we would say that the National Task Force established by this APNU-AFC Government is just another talk shop and a toothless poodle, set up for the employment of has-beens, jobs for the boys. For as they pontificate, Kingston drainage has changed half-way, Cummings Canal on the southern borders of Kingston is silted up from Fort Street right up to the koker door.
The dam is visible at low tide. Sussex Street canal is a collection of ponds. Water is full in the canal from the east up to Saffon Street. Laing Avenue canal is always full of water even in the drought just gone by. Alleyways in the city are still over-grown with grass. The worst condition of nonexistent drainage is south Georgetown, where the poorer sections of the population of the City have to endure the high level of water in their midst. The curious should drive around the City to see the truth of what KCTF says.
The headman of the Cummingsburg/Albertown/Queenstown constituency is either too busy with his business or the job of representing his constituents is not his cup of tea.
What of the other elected representatives to City Council; how do they see their roles among the electorate? This is the time for those who could not be elected, due to party dominance, to work among the folks to show how they could have done a better job on the City Council. Have they gone into hibernation? Just recall the President’s admonition to the elected Councillors as to their place in the communities.
It seems that Central Government has reserved the right to depend on the Dutch engineers to advise Guyana on drainage issues. A most shameful episode in our modern history, for the Dutch colonisers supervised the task of draining the coastal lands for agriculture and human settlements, of course through the labour of the enslaved centuries ago. They left us with well laid out structures be they canals, kokers etc. All we have to do is maintain them. This City has suffered for 28 plus 23 years from neglect. When the flooding problems started, pumps were installed at the kokers to drain water to the Demerara River. As time progressed and the siltation of drains in the City grew from worse to worst; the great visionaries at City Hall, began to make excuses for the floods that became a way of life. Did they then think of bringing Dutch engineers to relieve the flood situation? Did anyone observe that all the drains, alleyways and canals were silted up?
It is to the glory of these same unpaid labourers, our ancestors, to whom we should in paying homage, appreciate that they laid the foundation for proper drainage and irrigation all over our Guyana. They surely would not like the children of their slave masters to now come to impose themselves on us and, attempt to lecture us on the upkeep of our infrastructure. All we need do is maintain the drainage facilities, the outfalls and kokers. Will we learn the lessons of our history? Do we want to be enslaved again?
With all the pleadings by our group, some work was done to de-silt an alleyway or two in Kingston. The cleaners removed silt from drains that were filled with water up to the level of the parapets of the drains resulting in the water level dropping in the drains, which themselves, the drains that is, remained half- full of stagnant water.
The complaints that Younge Street canal was not completely desilted. This was a situation witnessed by the Clean -up Czar, who told the KCTF that the Minister acting on the advice of some engineer, wanted the inland drains of Kingston cleared of silt, that the water from these drains would flush out Younge Street canal. This could not be desilted completely, as this process would cause the walls or revetments to collapse. Bear in mind that Younge Street canal from the top of Camp Road to the koker at the Demerara River is concreted on both sides and base or bottom of the canal.
Kingston is not just another ward or sub-division of the capital city. Over one hundred large organizations are housed here, included are embassies, police headquarters, the list is long. The Minister of Infrastructure in an earlier press release claimed that the City will not flood as in the past this May June long rainy season just gone by. He was right about the flooding. The half baked desilting of canals, drains and some alleyways saw to that boast. Water has remained all over, however, and is still there to be seen in all the drains.
It is the duty of the City Council to deal with this drainage issue as one of public health, yes things have improved. More needs to be done, we pay our taxes, we need value for our money.
Secretary,
Kingston Citizens Task Force.

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