The sea level rising fast and we have done nothing to correct the city drainage problems

Nov 13, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – Perhaps, it is time for us to impose uniformity on the City of Georgetown. For decades, people have exercised their “right” to the reserved space in between their property and the roadway. On various occasions, authorities have demonstrated their intolerance to the practice of illegal construction on these expansionary spaces. I daresay that this is not good enough. Maybe, it is time that government take those reserved spaces back. Maybe, it is time we end the macho man show of “jugging” (forgive me) those who build on the government reserves and actually do what the space was intended for in the first place: for the construction of deeper, more uniform drainage, whereupon there would be walkways for people to safely move about and space for cars to pull over.
Editor, I feel that we have neglected the power of construction at the sides of the roadways. Take for example, the trench on the eastern side of GDF Headquarters near Vlissingen Road. Using Google Earth to obtain a basic measurement of this trench, I computed possible values for its volume in gallons. I took its area to be about 5,711 meters squared. Multiplying that by an assumed height of 2 meters, gives a basic volume of 11,422 cubic meters. To get an estimate of how much liquid gallons my measured trench can hold, one can multiply that volume by 264.17. So with two meters of depth, this trench holds more than three million gallons of water! If the depth is increased by just one meter, the capacity of the trench would grow by 1.5 million gallons. Take for another example, the two trenches on either side of the railway embankment near Lamaha, in the vicinity of Queenstown. Starting at around Vlissingen and assuming again an arbitrary depth of 2 meters. I take another of these measurements to obtain a capacity of about 15.4 million gallons of water on the northern side of the embankment alone. Although the southern trench of the railway embankment appears narrower, it spans almost the entire breadth of the city of Georgetown up to Ogle. I reckon it can hold a lot of water.
What if we deepen all of the trenches throughout the city, surface them and construct over them? We need to increase the capacity to carry water because at any given moment, the sea level outside of our coast may not be favourable. We are in between an ocean and a massive watershed named the Demerara Conservancy. In certain crucial moments, it appears that there is nowhere else for the water to go. What if we deepen all of the trenches? What if we deepen all of the city drains and lock them in place by surfacing them? What if then, we could finally build the right roads up to the right kerbs, creating walkways for ourselves and draining the roads properly off of their shoulders?
What if roads and drains are in fact one and the same construction project? What if it is time for the government to take back its reserves? Editor, the sea levels are rising fast and we have barely done anything to correct our drainage problems throughout the city. As water levels rise, so does pollution and then the risk of disease. Perhaps, it is high time we dig deep and get ourselves out of this mess.
Sincerely,
Emille Giddings

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