“We cannot guarantee no flooding in Region 6” – Regional Chairman

The Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) Administration cannot guarantee that there will be no flooding in low-lying areas during the current rainy season, according to Regional Chairman David Armogan.
These were his sentiments while addressing the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) on Thursday. This statement was in light of a recent advisory released by the Hydrometeorological Department that has predicted mostly thunderstorms over the next 14 days in Region Six.
Armogan says pumps will have to be utilised to get water off the land to avoid prolonged flooding.
“The Ministry of Agriculture has asked us for a set of emergency measures that we have to put in place to make sure that all the sluices are cleaned. Not all of the sluices have pumps, so we have to depend on a lot of gravity drainage. So, we have to make sure that the systems are cleared and cleaned, so that the water can flow easily out,” the Chairman told the RDC.
The Civil Defence Commission (CDC) has issued a warning for persons to take precaution during the spring tide expected next week.
Many areas could become inundated for days if there is heavy rainfall during the spring tide. The drainage system in the region has been designed to take off five centimetres (two inches) of water in a 24-hour period.
According to Armogan, the 12.7cm (five inches) of rainfall which the region experienced on Monday meant that in certain areas, water would have remained on the land for more than one day.
“Especially if we are operating with gravity flow, that is why it is necessary for us to have these pumps going so that when there is a change of tide, we can work the pumps and when there is a change in the tide again, we do the gravity flow,” he explained.
Despite these efforts, Armogan cautioned residents to brace themselves as the rainy season continued.
“We are preparing for the rainy season, but I cannot guarantee there will be no flooding, because if there is excessively heavy rainfall, then even with the pumps in place and the best drainage system in place, we will still have some amount of flooding, but we will try our best to ensure that we will avoid flooding, because flooding is very costly to farmers: they lose their crop in some instances.”
Cash crop and livestock farmers in the region are at great risk during this time.