No response from Govt on flooding compensation – NDC Chairman

After six weeks of awaiting their compensation, an official from one of the communities on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD), which experienced flooding last month, has revealed that there has been no information forthcoming from the Ministry of the Presidency as it relates to the settlement which was promised by the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
While speaking with Guyana Times on this matter, Uitvlugt-Tuschen Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Chairman Vishal Ambedkar stated that since the area was visited by Minister Harmon after the flooding, there has been

no communication from the Ministry.
“Nobody from the Ministry of the Presidency or the Minister of State’s office has made contact with me to update me as to what progress is required from us at this point or what we need to do in collaboration with them to compensate the residents here,” he said.
Ambedkar further added that Minister Harmon indicated that there were plans to do a joint assessment with officials from both local and central government. However, the regional bodies were neither contacted nor informed of any intention to do so after that encounter.
“When we met with the Minister of State, he said that the various levels of local and central government would do an assessment together. That has not taken place. We made our assessment before and we were not informed of any other assessment that would’ve taken place,” he said.
Additionally, all the information with regard to the assessment of losses from the residents of the affected communities was submitted to the Minister by the Geographical Representative of the area and Member of Parliament (MP), Mohamed Irfaan Ali. Despite this, they have not received any response.
“The Ministry hasn’t fulfilled their end of the bargain. We’ve submitted all (of) the information that we had to the relevant agencies, which is the Ministry of the Presidency, and we haven’t received any response. With regard to members of the Ministry meeting with the NDC to do an assessment together with us, we haven’t had any meetings as such.”
The NDC Chairman reflected that the last time they heard from Central Government was the only time the area was visited by Minister Harmon, approximately a week after the area was inundated by high tides that overtopped the sea defences. During that time, one of the main focuses was the sea defence structures, which were damaged in some sections. Apart from that, there has been no communication between the two parties despite attempts to contact the Ministry.
Meanwhile, in relation to the sea defence works, only temporary mechanisms have been set in place thus far which included the placement of boulders along the sections of the seawalls which were destroyed.
Presently, efforts are still being made by the regional officials to contact Minister Harmon so as to receive an update on the intention of the Ministry to compensate the flood victims.
“We will be officially writing to the Minister for a response on this matter and reminding him of the discussions that we would’ve had. We will be writing in this regard and asking for an update and what the Ministry plans to do,” said Ambedkar.
Over the past weeks, there has been widespread outcry from persons of the communities that suffered flooding, primarily those whose livelihoods and properties were severally damaged.