$300M allocated for drainage works in Georgetown

─ Strict Clean and Maintain Method to be employed

─ NDIA CEO urges citizens to desist from littering channels

By Nikosi Bruce

DPI, Guyana, Friday, May 31, 2019

The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) has cleaned and cleared several main drainage canals around Georgetown as they continue to collaborate with the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC). This is in keeping with the mandate given by Cabinet for the NDIA to take control of the main drains around Georgetown.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Fredrick Flatts.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NDIA, Fredrick Flatts spoke directly with the Department of Public Information (DPI), giving insight into the plans they have for the city.

“Along with the main drains, we’ll also look at the sluices, the outfall channels, the pumps. We have the mobile pumps, and in Georgetown, you have at least two fixed pump stations, anything to do with the main drainage system is our concern.”

With its mandate clear, the authority has already started its work cleaning more than 70 kilometres of main drains around Georgetown by both mechanical and manual means.

“The NDIA Strategy is to clean the channels mechanically and then maintain them throughout the year by a monthly manual cleaning. In terms of the mechanical cleaning, we have already signed contracts totalling approximately sixty-two million dollars for the excavation of most of the channels and also about ninety-two million dollars for the manual monthly cleaning. That cost that I give there is for the entire year,” Flatts explained.

With the use of this Clean and Maintain Method, the authority will not be bustling to clean during the rainy season but will be ready at all times for the rains.

Flatts, in closing, urged citizens to do their part in helping to ensure that flooding is averted.

“We would like citizens to do their part. First, they should observe that a lot of works are going on. Some of the main things, citizens can do is to desist from disposing their solid waste into the channels. It costs us a lot of problems and sometimes money… apart from aesthetics, it’s really a costly thing when we seek to dispose of our garbage in an irresponsible way.”

Just recently, the NDIA commissioned the first ever amphibious excavator to be accessible locally.

Image: Karime Peters

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