Inter-agency task force to address Georgetown drainage

Communities Minister Ronald Bulkhan will lead a task force with the aim of improving and managing the drainage of the city of Georgetown.

The establishment of the task force was made during Cabinet’s meeting this week, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said at a post-Cabinet press briefing held on Friday.

“The task force will also be expected to prepare a plan for the long-term development of these works which they are going to do. Cabinet will be expecting to be laid before it, a long-term strategy for the drainage of the city of Georgetown,” Harmon told the media.

The task force comprises of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council, the Ministries of Agriculture and Public Infrastructure, and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).

It is expected that the task force will utilise the recommendations presented by the team of Dutch engineers in finding effective drainage solutions for Georgetown. “There are some very serious options. There is going to have to be some radical change in the way we do things and the overall strategy will have to take into account those mandates,” Minister Harmon said.

Last July, the Dutch Risk Reduction team presented a report for the modelling of an effective and efficient drainage system for the city of Georgetown to the Public Infrastructure Minister.

Earlier this week, Georgetown and other parts of the country were inundated by heavy rainfall. The city; Linden, in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and low lying parts of communities along the coastline were affected by minor flooding due to the heavy rains.

The intermittent flooding that occurred over the past few weeks has continued despite Government having earlier boasted about no flooding in the usually inundated capital city during the rainy season. However, on December 23, Central Georgetown saw business owners running to their premises to assess their losses from the floodwaters.

The flooding of the city days before the Christmas weekend was as a result of heavy rains coupled with clogged drains, broken pumps and silted outfalls.