Large swathes of our interior regions and the coastland are experiencing heavy rainfall and floods that have inundated many communities. While we may have some rains through the year, there are two “rainy seasons” on the coast: during December-January and May-June, when the precipitation is particularly heavy. For the interior regions, there is generally one rainy season: during May-June, and, as such, it coincides then with the coastal pattern. We are in the midst of this confluence.
The average rainfall during these months is usually about 14 inches, but it is clear this has been exceeded in the flooded areas this month. It is commonsensical that if the rainfall runoff exceeds the drainage infrastructure – natural or manmade – flooding would occur. And this is what we are witnessing. On the coastland, this challenge becomes exacerbated because of the peculiar nature of our settlement.
Before the coming of the Dutch in the 17th century, the coastland was covered with mangrove that kept out the Atlantic and also facilitated the sedimentation of the rich alluvial mud the rivers disgorged into it. The Atlantic itself brought from the mouth of the Amazon River alluvial mud that lent the brown colour to the waters off our coasts – unlike the azure waters of the Caribbean, to which we are historically linked. After exhausting the soils in the riverine areas in their earliest settlements, the Dutch moved to the coast; and, using African slave labour, cleared the mangrove and created an intricate hydraulic system for draining the lands to make it suitable for cultivating sugar cane, cotton and coffee. These coastland settlements were five feet under the sea level.
To keep out the Atlantic, the Dutch created earthen sea dams (dykes) and later, concrete sea walls. Seven miles inland, they constructed a second series of earthen “back dams” to create conservancies from which water for irrigation could be supplied via sluices all year round. A tremendously intricate network of irrigation canals was dug around each cane field, with corresponding drainage canals that led to the Atlantic Ocean and ended in “kokers” or sluices.
These kokers are opened at low tides to allow accumulated water to drain out, and closed during high tides to keep out the raging Atlantic. It should be appreciated that keeping the coastland as a livable human habitat demands continuous attention to maintain the integrity of the sea and back dams, the canals and the kokers. Failure in any one of them can lead to flooding, especially in this age of rising seas due to rising atmospheric temperatures.
During the great flood of 2005, which occurred during the end of the December-January rainy season, Guyanese on the coast experienced the full effect of how catastrophic floods can be. Regions 3, 4 and 5 were declared disaster areas as 290,000 persons were affected. Guyanese learnt a new word – “lepto” – to describe the effects of the deadly water-borne leptospirosis disease. Now that the entire country is affected, one hoped that forewarned would have led to being forearmed; but, unfortunately, we appear to have developed amnesia on the lessons of 2005, even though in 2014-2015 there was another deluge that challenged our capabilities and defenses. One glaring lacuna was the regulation promulgated in 2005: that no house should be constructed less than four feet above the ground. This had been the rule since the days of the Dutch settlement, but had been allowed to lapse after Independence. From the pictures of the effects of the present floods, this rule is still being followed in the breach, if at all.
The other factor contributing to flooding is the filling in of canals and the concreting over of drains in the villages. Even in Georgetown, most of the present divided streets – such as Camp Street – had been separated by canals, which were filled in. With climate change ensuring rising seas and more intense rainfalls, unless we intend to desert the coastlands, we have to return to the basics of the hydraulics the Dutch have bequeathed us.
