Farmers urged to prepare for disaster, as torrential downpours expected in 2 weeks’ time

By Amar Persaud

Referring to the 2021 countrywide floods that wiped out farms and resulted in millions of dollars in losses, the Hydrometeorological Office is again urging farmers to prepare themselves to encounter torrential downpours which are expected in two weeks’ time.
During an exclusive interview with <<Guyana Times>> on Wednesday, Chief Hydrometeorological Officer Dr Garvin Cummings explained that the current wave of good weather would soon come to an end.

“We really want the Guyanese, I suppose from a hydromet perspective, to really get into the habit of preparing for the rainy season, and therefore there are some activities you would want to have completed before the rainy season commences,” he explained. “Where there is planning around the rainfall season…when the eventual impact comes, you’re prepared, so you have activities that you can then do that (are) impacted by the rainy season, but in fact might be supported by the amount of rainfall that you have,” the weather expert added.
He explained, “at the end of April, for example, if you’re a rice farmer, you want to finish your harvesting by that time, have your paddies dried and all of that; you don’t want to find yourself having to harvest crops in the May/June rains.”
He noted that these wetter-than-usual conditions are expected to bring some level of flooding, but not as severe as last year’s unprecedented flooding.

“The current forecast is projecting to be slightly wetter-than-usual conditions…the May-June period typically always brings the threat or the risk of flooding…it is no different for this year. At this stage, we’re not in a position to say that it will be as devastating as last year; but certainly, at this stage, we can say there will be the chances of flooding…especially so because we’re having wetter-than-usual conditions this year,” he explained.
Reflecting on the 2021 flooding, he explained that it was mostly driven by a number of tropical waves coming in Guyana’s direction.
“So, last May/June, we had excessive amounts of rainfall. In fact, it was a normal rainfall season driven by a number of tropical waves coming within the Guyanese territory…you had a series of tropical waves. As I described it back then, it was like a conveyer belt of tropical waves that’s coming across Guyana and bringing continuous rainfall,” he explained.
Dr Cummings said that, over the years, Guyana has not necessarily seen an increase in rainfall, but has been experiencing “high-intensity, short-duration rainfall”.
“So, it’s a lot of rain falling in a very short space of time, which means that the drainage system does not have the capacity to remove that amount of rainfall in such a short space of time. The coast, for example, is designed to take off two inches to two and a half inches of rainfall, but if you’re having in a day, you’re having eight inches of rainfall and you couple that with spring tide, then it becomes extremely difficult to remove that amount of water,” he highlighted.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Hydromet Office hosted a National Climate Outlook Forum, which saw the sharing of information in anticipation of the upcoming May-June rainy season.
“So, this is a key part of our communication strategy: being able to bring people together and being able to communicate with them, so that they have the information to prepare for the upcoming rainy season,” Dr Cummings said.
On June 9, 2021, President Dr Irfaan Ali had declared flooding in the country a level two disaster. All ten administrative regions across the country had experienced flooding, with Regions Ten, Seven, Six, Five, and Two being considered the most impacted areas.
Last month, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo led a national consultation with stakeholders to develop strategic flood protection measures in light of the 2021 flooding.