Dutch Risk Reduction Team to produce drainage model
Georgetown GINA, June 01, 2016
The Netherlands’ Dutch Risk Reduction Team (DRR-Team) will return to Guyana in July to collaborate with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to produce a hydraulic model to address flooding in Guyana.
Lennox Lee, Head of National Task Force Secretariat (ag.), told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that when the DRR team visited Guyana last year, several recommendations were made. He said five DRR engineers from the University of Delft are scheduled to visit Guyana in July as a result of the recommendations.
Lee explained that the team will be producing a computer based hydraulic model for drainage in parts of Georgetown. “That will help us to predict the vulnerability of certain areas when rainfall occurs,” he explained.
The team will be working along with local engineers to measure parts of the drainage system. “This is to assess what we have. They are going to put a computer hydraulic model together from which we’ll be able to say which areas in Georgetown are vulnerable for flooding at any time during rainfall,” Lee said.
To begin the test and complete the hydraulic model, the local engineers headed by the NDIA and the DRR team, will be working every day in the Liliendaal and South Ruimveldt communities.
When the model is prepared, a team from the University of Guyana (UG) will add to it and test it continually. The team will also use the information from the model to train young engineers. “So what we will have, (is) the transfer of information and technology as we can develop further, systems throughout Guyana on our own,” Lee said.
“It’s not easy to solve drainage (problems) in Georgetown just like that. There are many aspects of it and there will always be a problem with drainage in Georgetown but, this part of the process is to come up with the most efficient way to address drainage,” Lee said.
The project which is headed by the NDIA is critical since Guyana’s low-lying coast, which is below sea level at high tide, faces the threat of flooding especially from frequent and intense rainfall.