Taskforce established to monitor flood-prone areas

With the Hydromet Department of the Agriculture Ministry recently issuing an advisory alerting fishermen and other persons residing on the coast of instances of high waves coupled with above-normal tides, in addition to the increase in rainfall, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha recently established a task force to closely monitor developments in these areas.
The task force, which comprises a number of technical officials from Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Four (Demerara-Mahaica); Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), was mandated, a release from the Ministry stated, to report instances of flooding, heavy rainfall and breaches in sea defences and drainage and irrigation structures along the coast and other low-lying areas.
Minister Mustapha said given the seriousness of the advisory and Guyana’s geographical position, it was important to have a team in place.
“We are currently experiencing extreme rainfall as part of our November-January rainy period. The Hydromet Department also forecasted high waves and above normal tides. With all this information at hand, it was critical for me to establish this task force so that information about what is happening on the ground can be filtered across the sector in a timely manner. I’ve also instructed our regional engineers and other officers to provide daily reports about rainfall in their respective areas and how it is affecting persons and their farming activities,” Mustapha said.
He further disclosed that the NDIA has been working with regional officials to conduct some works to ensure drainage channels in several farming communities are cleared. This, the Minister said, would improve the drainage capacity in these areas should there be any occurrence of flooding.
Additionally, a team from the Ministry is currently working with cash crop and livestock farmers who experienced losses recently as a result of flooding due to heavy rainfall.

Improving long-term drainage capability
In an effort to improve the country’s drainage capacity in the long term, Mustapha noted that the Ministry is working to develop a drainage system that can withstand the impacts of climate change, which has resulted in an increase in rainfall in a short period of time.
He added that this year, the Ministry plans to install a number of additional high-capacity pumps to its fleet of drainage pumps.
“We’re working to develop an overall structure that will improve our current drainage system. This year, we plan to install a number of new pumps across the country since we cannot rely solely on gravity drainage. With climate change having such a great impact on the weather patterns, we have to prepare our system and have it functioning at its fullest capacity in the long term, especially since rainfall has become a lot more unpredictable,” Minister Mustapha said.