City Council monitoring drains, canals, pump stations as rainy season kicks in – Mayor

…as Central Government initiates another clean-up after heavy rains

As the rainy season hits the capital city, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (GM&CC) is actively monitoring the city’s irrigation network, as part of efforts to ensure that residents and businesses are not affected by flooding due to the inclement weather.

Last week, Mayor of Georgetown, Alfred Mentore, accompanied by Gregory Fraser, Chairman of the City Works Committee, conducted a series of site visits across the city.
They were joined by members of the City Engineer’s Department.
The delegation visited several key locations and multiple pump stations, as part of ongoing efforts to assess infrastructure, improve drainage systems, and ensure the city’s readiness for the upcoming rainy season. The visits formed part of a broader initiative to monitor the progress of current works and identify areas requiring urgent intervention.

In a subsequent press briefing following the site visits, Mayor Mentore highlighted that apart from monitoring the city’s draining network as a whole, the council will also zone in on several streets where construction works are ongoing.
“Princes Street, [in] which a particular contractor is doing some work, and he would have blocked up the canals with some key dams; we had to ask him to address the dam, address the adjustment of the dam so that the water could flow and that he must also monitor those particular canals so that the water continues to flow to the outfall. So we are addressing this. We’ve also addressed some aspects of North Road as well as Crown Street”

Additionally, in cases where water cannot flow out through the various drains and canals due to high tide, the Mayor noted that several pumps in the city will be activated to reduce the risk of flooding. In fact, Alfred told spectators that these pumps will be regularly inspected to ensure that they are functional at all times.
“We will continue to monitor and ensure that the gravity flow… the water is going out, and wherever there is an issue where the gravity cannot continue to flow because the high tide coming, we will be putting on those various pumps and we’re ensuring that those pumps have all its gasoline and all the workers at those particular points to ensure that we keep the people and the citizens as dry as possible.”
Meanwhile, following a spate of heavy rains, the Government began a clean-up of what the Ministry of Public Works deemed “critical areas” in the city, to clear drainage systems of plastics and other waste, clogging drains and impeding water flow.