Canal No 1 flooding
… as farmers report tremendous losses
Even as the heavy downpours continue across the country, residents of Canal Number One Polder, West Bank Demerara (WBD), are now picking up the pieces as the floodwaters begins to recede.
Good Hope, Canal Number One resident, Sattie (only name given), told Guyana Times that for the 20 years she has been living in the area, this is the second time she experienced such devastating flooding.
“The water was terrible. It go down a lot. It started to go down about three days ago and we glad it going down because we can dwell outside now because for the whole holiday season, we went inside and couldn’t come out,” the woman lamented.
The lower part of Canal Number One Polder, WBD, has been flooded since December 20, 2017, with the water continuously rising. However, for the predominantly farming community, their livelihood remains threatened since the water is yet to begin to recede from their farms.
Sattie’s husband, Edward, said the last time his pineapple farm was under so much water was during the 2005 floods. He explained that he farms over three acres of pineapple along with ground provisions and plantains.
“The yard is not so much but is the farm at the back. I had plantain, cassava and pine. Is three acres of pine gone down the drain there… some of the pine buss out already and they a turn like apple you nah got nothing fuh get back from that. The pines just getting small and is over two weeks now that it deh under water,” he said.
Meanwhile, large-scale fruit farmer Hemraj Persaud Boodhoo said his losses are estimated to be in the millions, since most of his fruit trees have begun dying.
On a visit to a section of Boodhoo’s farm, Guyana Times observed at least one cashew tree uprooted while thousands of pineapple plants were covered in water. The farmer explained that the roots of the pineapple plants have already begun rotting and soon those will die, adding that they have been covered in over four feet of water for approximately two weeks.
