Flooding in Georgetown, East Coast Unacceptable!

Recent heavy rainfalls that saw flooding in the city of Georgetown and East Coast of Demerara is unacceptable! It should not have happened. Guyanese remember only too well during the term of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition Government they did not have to suffer through this. It is a travesty that houses, and businesses have been inundated with flood water for days. It is a shame people must deal with snakes in their homes because of the flooding and forced to create makeshift protection from the inundating waters with sandbags.

Dwellers and businesses not only have to count financial losses, which easily could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, they also have other fears to deal with. The economic fallout can be deleterious. Some will either take long to restore their quality of life before the flood and some may never be able to. And even as some must make payments on hire-purchases, loans, mortgages when businesses are forced to be closed and there are damages to goods, furniture, vehicles and appliances, navigating the flood becomes more stressful. In emotional, physical, and economic distress, dwellers cannot ignore they have to watch out for the possibility of downed power lines that can result in electrical or fire hazards.

There are other risks of flooding. The World Health Organisation advice, “Floods can potentially increase the transmission of the following communicable diseases: Water-borne diseases, such as typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis and hepatitis A; and Vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever, yellow fever, and West Nile Fever.” The spread of the communicable novel coronavirus is also at greater risk with people becoming lax in obeying guidelines. Realistically, COVID-19 would not be among the foremost things on the minds of those trying to navigate the flooding, save their earthly possessions and investments. This publication wishes nothing but the best for all who are dealing with this problem.  

A caring Central Government should not have sat back and not provided needed support to the city and local government that would immediately rid Georgetown and the East Coast of the deluge of water. Admittedly, in Georgetown there has been an absence of modern urban planning to cater for population growth, the environment, maintaining and improving waterways. Drains have become clogged, debris and garbage are thrown around, though it must be said there have been recent improvements to the situation.

There can no longer be disregard or half-hearted approach for proper drainage, little interest in desilting of the canals and allowing for filling the inner waterways that were part of the city’s irrigation design and vital to managing floods. There is a crisis in management that has haunted the city for decades. The local Neighbourhood Democratic Council too faces unique challenges. Local Government is in disarray not from not having elections, but the money needed to better serve the people.

To the Coalition Government’s credit, Georgetown did not suffer the flooding residents are now suffering. Then Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson took a proactive role in helping City Government to avoid and minimise flooding. This had the concomitant positive effect on mitigating risk and losses people were likely to suffer.  Where the Mayor and City Council and other local authorities may not have the capacity to drain the community, the Central Government must get involved.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government always had a hostile relationship with the City Council because the residents have been traditional supporters of the People’s National Congress/Reform. Successive PPP/C governments starved the city of funding by withholding rates and taxes for government-owned properties. They also sat back and watched Georgetown tumbled from the once famed sobriquet as the Garden City to the disgraced Garbage City. One of their ministers even wished a public health crisis would befall the city.

Of the past two and a half decades the city has been in drastic decline, the PPP/C was in Central Government for at least two. The flooding is their shame, and they cannot run away from it.  Dwellers, businesses and those who pass through Georgetown and East Coast know that the last time they saw flooding of this magnitude, and being on the land for so long, was during the PPP/C’s administration. People remember this all too well. The City Council and local authorities should be able to rely on Central Government’s assistance, without having to ask, in ensuring not only the water recedes but the drainage and irrigation problems are fixed.