Blocked creek responsible for Rainbow City, Kara Kara floods

Chairman of the Environmental Committee within the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC), Wainwright Bethune, has concluded that blockage to the Hymara creek at Mackenzie, Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice) was mainly responsible for the recent severe flooding suffered in Rainbow City and Kara Kara communities.
In April, residents of the said communities were severely affected during the heavy downpours. Bethune said that in an effort to bring relief, work has been ongoing at sections of the Hymara creek, which was blocked due to severe garbage build-up and thick vegetation:
“The flooding in the Kara Kara, Rainbow City area was due mainly to blockages in the Hymara creek. What we did, we looked at the entire area, some parts of the creek had to be desilted and the other areas it was basically heavy vegetation, garbage that caused a restriction of flow of the water.”
However, while relief came to many, some residents had complained of still being affected during heavy downpours. The Environmental Committee chairman indicated that he was unaware of such additional complaints by residents.
He said he was satisfied with the desilting work, adding that some of the vegetation had also been successfully removed. Bethune said Councillor Lennox Gasper of the area is also very active in ensuring that relief and assistance come to the areas.
“We would have recognised that there was an increase in flow (of water), when the vegetation and garbage were removed and there were a lot of areas where we see residents putting things like fridge doors and all of this caused some restriction of the flow of the water and when we completed that job we were comfortable that we had a free flow of water going into the Demerara River,” the chairman stated.
The Rainbow City and Kara Kara areas have been affected by severe flooding over the years, with the blame being directed at blockage to the Hymara Creek and activities of bauxite mining company, Bosai Minerals Group Guyana Incorporated.