CDC reports on flood situation across regions

The Civil Defence Commission (CDC) says 17 communities were affected by flooding during the period January 1 – 9.

This was contained in a report compiled by acting Preparedness and Response Manager Captain Salim October and released by the Commission on Sunday.

The report states that the communities were impacted by water entering homes while livestock and domestic animals were in distress and crops inundated.

Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) was the most affected, whereas Nabaclis in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) recorded the most affected homes with 1,000 affected households.

The report states there were over 2,800 severely affected households: 1,200 in Region Two, 1,590 in Region Four and 15 in Region Ten. Some 2,705 cleaning hampers were distributed and there were eight water distribution activities.

Assessments conducted by the CDC show that during the period identified, there was above normal high tides and excessive rainfall across northern Guyana.

Teams were deployed by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture to several communities due to concerns about potential disease outbreaks and impacts to livelihoods dependent on agriculture.

Some of the issues in affected communities include blockage in community drains; flooded areas being lower than the waterways; the non-maintenance of river dams in abandoned farms which allowed water from the river to flow into the low-lying farmlands and the deplorable state of some roadways which led to them being poorly drained.

The CDC notes that due to COVID-19, several community residents turned to farming to sustain their livelihoods and this was affected by the floods.

Some of its recommendations include drains to be cleared by residents and maintained by the NDCs, the installation of drainage pumps and the construction of elevated farmhouses, chicken pens and other structures.

The report also highlights the response by the CDC which included gathering key data to inform assessment in critically affected areas; issuing flood and prevention alerts to RDCs, municipalities and NDCs; public information updates and mobilising cleaning resources to distribute to affected communities.

There were also be responses by other agencies. Drainage assessments in affected communities by the NDIA, cleaning resources organised and distributed to affected communities, pumps and sluices monitored by regional and city engineers.

Municipalities, RDCs and NDCs will continue to conduct assessments and update the CDC.

The Commission says its priorities over the next 24 hours are the distribution of sandbags and cleaning hampers to affected residents through the RDCs and NDCS, and to monitor the weather across the regions in collaboration with the Hydromet Office.