City flooding

Nov 25, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I was thinking about that high-profile cleanup, then the anticipated drain down failed to materialize. I agree that the handful of positives, propaganda objectives and value duly omitted, are overwhelmed by uncooperative circumstances. Like climate change, and unseasonal cascades, leading to that sure thing in Guyana. It is the constancy of being waterlogged, water-soaked, if not water-boarded, in its torturing Guyanese version.

I can give a little glimpse of the above, as I had cause to venture into Kaieteur Falls in Georgetown, and brave the rising rapids surfacing throughout the bedraggled capital city. Sneezy, it is. Water might be the only thing capital about present liquidity, with a bow to dirty money, and dirty politics running a close second and third, not necessarily in that order, and with some difficulty separating the two. For critics of naysayers, oil-related money is the best cover for other kinds to come here and register their winsome presence. Check with construction, for a start, and another stop made at commercial banks recording handsome profits. However, enough of that old story, which is the AG’s problem with CFATF, not mine.

In this city of angels, wings got soggy in a hurry, and all over, as the rains decided on a pre-Christmas visit. It looks like it is going to be a long stay, regardless of the kind of reception Guyanese give. Grumpy, doesn’t matter. And who wouldn’t be, with streets transformed into broad pools, deep lakes elsewhere, and the occasional dismal swamp encountered? Incredibly, and this is not Ripley’s, the biggest swamp has to be the one in New Market Street in the vicinity of the Georgetown Public Hospital. Arguments may arise about if it is the largest swamp around, but none should whisper a syllable about it being the most dangerous one. Given settled scientific convictions, it could be a case of COVID-19 in and COVID-19 out. That is, of the hospital complex itself. People should be made to quarantine both ways in some holding area. The question is where in this cramped town. Man, we are in for more than a deluge of Noachian proportions. Not water from the heavens, but of a virus from some laboratory. Because I am playing this one safe, I am not saying whether it is one in the East or the West.

But that New Market Street, GPHC compound, lingers with me. All these billions spent to ease flooding woes in the big city, and we can’t make a single little dent. PPP/C Government, PNC Government, the latter walked with its sidekick, the AFC, and it is same torrential story over and over. Talking about torrents, I don’t qualify what we had in the past few days as being torrential. Heavy showers and copious ones, yes; but torrential downpours, not just yet buddy. What is going to happen then? This is enough public bedwetting as it is, so I am not going to compound matters by blaming the PPP or PNC. The sacrilegious is substituted, I blame above, whatever and whoever is responsible for up there. I know that water is the source of life, but too much of it, and a good thing goes to waste.

Considering all this, I can give confident testimony to this: Guyana no longer has a May-June rainy season, and a December-January one. The first grouping is closer to April-August, and the latter has now been declared November to February. The Cascades had it right; ‘listen to the rhythm of the falling rain’. And those dratted meteorologists pulled a fast one with their doppler readings to extend the wet season on the sly. Like COVID-19, climate change now gets blasted for everything. Look at Quamina Street, parts of Queenstown, Cummingsburg, and these are only isolated strips of Georgetown passed through in a hurry. Next time, instead of cleaning up grass, let’s cleanup, clear, our minds first. Is this what we wish for the cosmopolitans and men (sorry, no women) from the Sahara to see? Ah, renegotiation, but that’s political heresy. And as for 2%, it is the best thing ever, so stop the griping, will you Guyanese? A little rain every now and then never hurt anyone. They should come and live in Guyana. Last, if anyone thinks I am fooling around, they couldn’t be more wrong.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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