Contracts approved for major drainage works in city

Apr 04, 2019 News

Works being done on the East La Penitence Channel

The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) yesterday disclosed that contracts have been approved for cleaning of the city’s drainage facilities, and that it will be partnering with the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) to carry out the rehabilitation, maintenance and operation of said facilities.
”In 2019, NDIA will be responsible for 93,421 metres of main drainage canals in Georgetown. An allocation of $274 million will be spent on Georgetown drainage for 2019,” Agriculture Minister Noel Holder said.
Church and Sussex Streets as well as Ruimveldt are to benefit from three high capacity, mobile pumps to reduce the occurrence of floods.
Additionally maintenance work will be done on other pumps in the capital city, inclusive of seven mobile and two fixed drainage pumps at Kitty and Liliendaal.
NDIA’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dave Hicks said that the authority will also be involved in rehabilitating drainage channels in Georgetown.
“We will also be using our equipment to rehabilitate the La Penitence South channel which is 5,600 metres long. These works will be broken up into eight sections since the pontoon has to be demobilized and re-launched around bridges, main access roads,” Hicks said.
The Deputy CEO further stated that even as major works are expected to commence shortly, squatting activities continue to obstruct works of that nature in areas such as La Penitence.
“The NDIA was able to fabricate a mud bin on the pontoon and mount an excavator to carry out excavation works on the La Penitence South drainage channel. The channel runs from the eastern extreme of the Lamaha Springs area to the westerly extreme draining into the Demerara River via a double door sluice north of Ruimveldt Police Station.
A pontoon was launched with an excavator into the channel in the vicinity of Mandela Avenue and the machines are working westerly towards the pedestrian bridge near the Brickdam Secondary School. To date, 260m of this 380m stretch of channel has been excavated,” Hicks said.
Some of the areas drained by this channel include Lamaha Springs, Lamaha Park, Guyhoc Park, Tucville, Freeman Street East La Penitence, Middle Road, Laing Avenue and Albouystown.
The decision to have NDIA commence drainage works in Georgetown followed the recommendations of a Cabinet Sub-committee meeting which was chaired by the Agriculture Minister and also included Ministers of Public Infrastructure and Communities respectively.

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