CDC, Public Health Ministry send relief to residents

Region 8 flooding

…Global Technology, Inet lend support

The Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and the Public Health Ministry, along with several local businesses and organisations, were on Saturday finally able to deliver food items and bring health care services to beleaguered residents of Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) communities as the floodwaters slowly recede.
Assistance is being dispatched to the six areas most seriously affected, namely Chenapau, Waipa, Kaibarupai, Itabac, Sandhill Settlement and Kanapang; and the CDC has confirmed that the water level in those six villages has indeed been receding.

Four planeloads of relief supplies have been dispatched to Chenapau and Orinduik, and relief supplies for Waipa, Kaibarupai and other villages are being taken to the villages from the CDC’s Forward Operations Centre at Orinduik.
Several food items, such as farine, cassava bread, rice, tasso, corned mutton/beef, sardine, tuna, salt fish, salted meat, porridge stuff, milk, sugar, salt, Milo, Ovaltine, drink mixes, chowmein/pasta, peas, cassareep, crackers and biscuits have already been sent to the CDC’s Forward Operations Centre at Orinduik.
Other needed items, such as tarpaulins, mosquito nets, hammocks, sheets, blankets, towels, toilet paper, disposable napkins, sanitary pads, laundry soap/detergent, bleach, bath soap, matches/lighters, rope, garbage bags, water purification tablets, clothes (underwear, etc.), reusable plastic eating utensils, buckets, insect repellent, among other things, have also been sent there.

Minister Valerie Garrido-Lowe of the Indigenous People’s Affairs Ministry is leading a team which is currently en route by boat to Waipa and Kaibarupai. They are taking items consisting mainly of foodstuff, medical supplies, clothing and water purification agents.
Director of the CDC, Colonel (retd) Chabilall Ramsarup, who described the current situation in the region as “grim”, has said the CDC’s emergency response base is at Orinduik.
Global technology and Inet have offered support and installed Satellite Internet, Voice (VOIP), Wi-Fi and Power at the Orinduik Guest House. This installation was completed, tested and handed over to CDC by the i-Net engineer on site. These new satellite facilities will now allow CDC employees on the ground at Orinduik to communicate in real-time with the main base in Georgetown.
A faster information flow is expected to begin, and this will see relief for the people being prompt. More importantly, Orinduik can now provide live weather updates to CDC, GDF, MOIPA and local airline companies providing flood relief in the area.
The Public Health Ministry has also dispatched several doctors, nurses, community health workers and environmental health officers to the area.
According to Junior Public Health Minister Dr Karen Cummings, the MPH is also preparing flood kits with antifungal creams, Panadol syrup, and items to prevent outbreaks of diseases in the affected areas.
Region Eight Chairman Bonaventure Fredricks has welcomed the relief and noted how “heartening” it is to receive the items.
But as relief works continue in Region 8, the CDC is now reporting that several villages in Region Seven, Cuyuni-Mazaruni, are now suffering from flooding, although not as severely as what had occurred in Region 8. The affected villages are Purima, Kako, Jawalla, Phillippi, Kamarang and Duebamang.
The Region Seven Regional Disaster Risk Management Systems (RDRMS) and Regional Disaster Risk Management Committee (RDRMC) have been activated. A team is said to have already been deployed to the affected areas, and will be conducting assessments and reconnaissance. Reportedly, mainly farmlands and some residences have been flooded in the Region Seven villages.
The flooding in both regions is mainly due to excessive rainfall occurring in the highland regions of recent.