Drainage Works Commence
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, April 4, 2019
Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder has upheld his commitment to seeing Georgetown’s drainage systems improved as the capital city will soon benefit from a series of drainage works that are expected to increase the drainage capacity and significantly reduce flooding throughout the city.
Officials from the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) on Wednesday, April 3 disclosed that contracts have been approved for a series of mechanical and manual cleaning of the city’s drainage channels. Mechanical cleaning operations estimating $72M and manual cleaning operations estimating $92M, are on schedule to commence within the next two weeks. These works will be executed on the primary drainage systems in Georgetown during 2019.
The NDIA will partner with the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to carry out rehabilitation, operation and maintenance of the city’s primary drainage system.
“In 2019, NDIA will be responsible for 93,421 meters of main drainage canals in Georgetown, including the Downer/Liliendaal Pump Station Drain, South Road, Ruimveldt North & South among others. An allocation of $274 Million will be spent on Georgetown drainage for 2019,” Minister Holder said.
Three high capacity mobile drainage pumps will also be installed at Church Street, Sussex Street and Ruimveldt to reduce the occurrence of flooding.
Additionally, the authority will continue to execute maintenance works on other pumps in the capital city, which includes the seven mobile pumps and two fixed drainage pumps at Kitty and Liliendaal.
NDIA’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dave Hicks said that the authority will also be involved in rehabilitating drainage channels in Georgetown.
“We will also be using our equipment to rehabilitate the La Penitence South channel which is 5,600 metres long. These works will be broken up into eight sections since the pontoon has to be demobilised and re-launched around bridges, main access roads and intersections.”
The Deputy CEO further stated that even as major works are expected to commence shortly, squatting activities continue to obstruct works of that nature in areas such as La Penitence.
“The NDIA was able to fabricate a mud bin on the pontoon and mount an excavator to carry out excavation works on the La Penitence South drainage channel. The channel runs from the eastern extreme of the Lamaha Springs area to the westerly extreme draining into the Demerara River via a double door sluice north of Ruimveldt Police Station. A pontoon was launched with an excavator into the channel in the vicinity of Mandela Avenue and the machine is working westerly towards the pedestrian bridge near the Brickdam Secondary School. To date, 260m of this 380metre stretch of the channel has been excavated.”
Areas drained by this channel include Lamaha Springs, Lamaha Park, Guyhoc Park, Tucville, Freeman Street East La Penitence, Middle Road, Laing Avenue and Albouystown.
The decision to have NDIA commence drainage works in Georgetown followed the recommendations of a Cabinet Sub-committee meeting which was chaired by the Agriculture Minister and included Ministers of Public Infrastructure and Communities respectively.
Nikosi Bruce.
Images: Ministry of Agriculture.