What else…new on GT flooding?

Once again, reports have flooded the news media about sections of Georgetown being flooded after an intense period of heavy rainfall – four inches in four hours!! Now your Eyewitness is getting kinda tired with the back and forth-ing between the central Government and the Mayor and City Council as to who’s responsible for this pitiful state of affairs. After all, it ain’t just a matter of water entering homes and soaking furniture, but the likelihood of waterborne diseases spreading and actually killing us off!! There are already reports of the feared and deadly Chikungunya hitting us!!
Now sadly, this situation ain’t new, and one has to enquire as to what the heck’s behind its stubborn persistence. Your Eyewitness did what might now be passé in the age of ChatGPT – he actually Googled the question of flooding in Guyana!! His finding confirms the old saying that “the more things change, the more they remain the same”!! He came across a paper on the exact problem – Sanitation and Civilisation in Georgetown, British Guiana by JUANITA DE BARROS.
It began by describing the fundamental challenge of trying to maintain a city on our coastland: “Georgetown’s geography prevented the easy introduction of a system that used water to move sewage (such as the one that had been instituted in England). All of British Guiana’s sea coast, including Georgetown, is below sea level. A succession of Africans enslaved by Dutch and British colonial masters laboured to drain the coastal plain and to construct dams and drainage canals to keep the water out.
“Even today, drainage canals and kokers combine with a sea wall to try to keep the land dry, the wall itself the last barrier against tides that can be over four feet high. The system, though, is often frustrated by the heavy rains to which British Guiana is subject. A downpour during high tide, when the kokers are closed, results in overflowing canals and flooding in parts of the city. In 1921, a heavy rainstorm flooded some city streets and swept away bridges. Streets and yards in five city wards were flooded, the water rising above the floors of houses. The high waters washed “any foul matters”, which ranged from “objectionable kitchen drainage, [to] refuse food, [to] garbage” to human waste, to the ground!!
“Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries… while there was a flurry of legislation to improve sanitation. Yet political indifference undermined the effectiveness of this legislation and ensured that the concern with matters of health would remain mere rhetoric. Politicians and city officials often ignored their own policies and allowed property owners (notably landlords) to circumvent the laws.”
Looks like the floods are always gonna be with GT – so we better relocate it!!

…on democratisation?
We’re told democracy’s literally “Government by the people”!! For convenience, we chose representatives to do the job for us – but the closer these reps are to us, the more input we can hopefully have in governance matters. The answer, then, is to increase what we call “local Govt”??!! Towards this end – and knowing money makes the world go round – the Government just approved increases in stipends for members of NDCs!
Councillors on the RDCs will move from $30,000 to $50,000. On the NDC level it’s now $30,000 monthly – up from the previous paltry $3,000!! NDC Chairpersons’ stipends have increased from $10,000 to $50,000, while Vice Chairpersons will now receive $40,000, up from $5,000. Regional Chairmen have been bounced to $550,925/monthly.
The increases come against the backdrop of earlier increases to subventions for local democratic organs. Municipalities now receive $50 million annually; each NDC receives $30 million. Previously, NDCs received about $5 million, and municipalities approximately $18 million.
We should now demand better services!!

…on national security
When it comes to our national security, you can’t have enough friends in your corner – especially when the threat is a century-old claim over Essequibo. The border defence pact floated by Pressie with Brazil is a timely contingency!!