Emergency repairs contain flooding after Stanleytown koker door collapse

The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) on Monday evening swiftly carried out emergency repairs on the Stanleytown Koker door on the West Bank of Demerara (WBD) which had broken earlier that day, and installed a stop door to prevent flooding amid ongoing high tides. Speaking with Guyana Times on Tuesday, Region Three Regional Chairman, Ayube Inshan explained that the pressure from the high tide led to the collapse of the wooden door. He noted that a new door, which will be made of steel, has been ordered to replace the broken door.
“It was the high tide and the pressure [that caused the door to break]. They put in a stop lock so we stop the water from coming in and they order a steel door which we will be getting not too long from now. I can’t say [when the door will arrive] maybe in the next week. But we have a stop lock so we don’t have any problem there right now. We just have to wait until the door is made,” Inshan said.
The door to the Stanleytown koker broke away approximately 16:00hrs on Monday, with a spring tide advisory currently in effect until October 11. By Monday night traffic was closed off to the bridge at the koker to allow for the emergency work to be done. In Guyana, kokers are essential drainage structures used to manage water flow between the coastal lowlands and the Atlantic Ocean or rivers. They are a critical part of the country’s flood control and irrigation system, especially since much of Guyana’s populated coast lies below sea level at high tide. Inshan noted that Monday’s incident only caused minimal flooding to a few residents in the area before the situation was dealt with. “We have the stop lock there and we didn’t have any kind of big flooding, about 6 – 7 households alone had flooding in the area,” Inshan said.