PREPARING FOR THE RAINY SEASON

Jun 03, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

The extensive damage done to sections of Region Eight by the recent flooding has not given us confidence that we are properly prepared for the 2017 rainy season which is underway. Despite the assurances from the Minister of Public Infrastructure that all systems are in place to mitigate flooding, residents must still prepare for the worse.
The flooding in Region Eight affected several villages and forced scores of residents to seek refuge on higher ground. Many houses were washed away and several others were submerged. Damage to roads left many residents inconvenienced and will add further burden to the budget. The floods which have also caused major destruction to food crops, livestock and poultry, show that the nation’s infrastructure needs urgent upgrading.
How the administration deals with the recovery work will give us a better indication of its ability to respond to disasters? The flooding can largely be attributed to the country’s lack of capacity to deal with extraordinary weather patterns which have renewed frustration among residents. Time after time, this publication has pointed out the danger of poor infrastructure, especially for the fact that the country is prone to heavy rainfalls and floods annually, especially on the onset of global warming.
The most that has been done by successive administrations is drain-cleaning just before the start of each rainy season, with the responsible ministers making excuses or blaming those in charge of the drainage system.What has been missing over the years has been a serious approach to forward planning, looking at the capacity of the infrastructure to withstand nature’s hazards and ensuring that they are built to minimize risk from natural disasters.
However, there are problems in managing the country’s infrastructure. Guyana’s development has not kept pace with its ability to deal with floods and other environmental issues. And of crucial importance is the fact that the last administration poorly managed the nation’s infrastructure to ensure that the increased capacity of the drainage systems matched the level rate of rainfalls.
Based on the age of the infrastructure, there is no doubt that corrective work to give the country adequate protection from floods will be expensive. But it needs to be done, and done quickly, because the longer it is neglect, it will cost more.
Everyone knows that all it takes is just one powerful rainstorm to cause flooding and set the nation back. Frankly, with the advent of climate change, no one can with surety say how the rainy season will turn out.
For decades, droughts, floods and tropical storms have always had devastating effects on the livesGuyanese. They have also eaten away at the gross domestic product and undermined prospects for economic growth. Historical records show that extreme weather always afflected the nation’s economy.
Older and some younger citizens now approaching maturity can relate to the experience, having witnessed the debilitating floods of 2005, and the destructive floods of recent times.
Guarding the physical environment has always been seen as the best way to minimize the negative consequences of floods. However, governments have been very poor in that regard. There must be some decision-making on where people choose to live. Informal or low lying settlements should not be allowed to continue in future. The cost of such settlements is just too much; and it is not just the cost in the infrastructure but also the cost in livestock, the economy and sometimes in lives.
The government has to be far more proactive in ensuring that people do not settle in areas that are at potential risk of flooding. It is instructive that areas are strictly designated for housing settlements so as to prevent the widespread crying and gnashing of teeth when the rains come followed by floods.

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PREPARING FOR THE RAINY SEASON

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