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A rundown drainage system will be expensive to upgrade
Dear Editor,
In a feature article which appeared in KN on April 26, columnist GHK Lall expressed the view that the recent flooding of Georgetown (the City) was a national embarrassment caused by voters and politicians who have failed over the years to address drainage and other infrastructures problems affecting the City in a comprehensive way because of political squabbling, leakage of revenues and racial imperatives of its diverse residents.
Over the years the City has been governed by a Mayor and Counsellors whose political philosophy generally reflected those of the Central Government’s political party. Annual budgets did not have development and maintenance programs for the allocation of funds where they were most needed. Hence, much of the revenue collected were spent on pet projects, ill conceived works and with some filtered in the wrong pockets as GHK Lall frankly stated.
Basically, the City’s drainage system is in a state of disrepair and unless it is repaired and upgraded to cope with the high rainfall expected in the next few months of the rainy season, the City will continue to experience much of the same with respect to flooding. To minimize the occurrence of future flooding, the following should be undertaken immediately :
Remove the silt and debris clogging the outfall channels of all sluices and culverts discharging flood water into the Demerara River.
Repair all sluices (wooden doors, winches, pulleys, etc.)
Clear all channels leading to the sluices of silt, debris and weeds and ensure they are graded to the required depths and have adequate widths without constrictions.
Ancillary drains discharging into the main channels should be cleared of all obstructions broken sections repaired and graded to allow for an unobstructed flow of rainfall from the streets and properties.
The auxiliary pumps installed to assist with drainage when the sluices are closed at high tide should be fully functional with adequately stored fuel on site.
A rundown drainage system will be expensive to upgrade. The Local Government will no doubt have to assist the City with financial, technical and managerial resources to restore the system to its functional expectations. However, before funding and other essentials necessary to achieve the desired objectives are provided by the Local Government, an audit should be carried out on the City’s finances and management to ensure that the resources it allocates are deployed by a competent work force for the intended purposes and not filtered away into ratholes.
Yours truly,
Charles Sohan
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