Emergency works to breached sluice bring relief to Diamond/Grove residents
Temporary emergency works were conducted last night to the breached koker in the Diamond/Grove area on the East Bank of Demerara.
Around 5:30 pm on Wednesday, the sluice door at Market Street, Grove, broke, which resulted in the immediate surroundings being flooded.
This prompted a visit to the affected areas by Prime Minister, Brig. (ret’d), Hon. Mark Phillips, Minister of Public Works, Hon. Bishop Juan Edghill, Minister within Ministry of Public Works, Hon. Deodat Indar, Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Zulfikar Mustapha, and Director-General of the Civil Defense Commission (CDC), Lieutenant Colonel, Kester Craig, as well as other officials.
Providing an update to Department of Public Information (DPI) this morning, Lt. Col. Craig stated:
“As it relates to work at the breach, they have installed two temporary doors; while they work on fixing the main door that was breached… What I have observed is that the temporary repairs were done last night, and with the high tides this morning, there was no additional flooding to the communities.”
Last night, the CDC had conducted an assessment to determine the level of support needed by the affected households, and how many persons would be utilising the temporary shelter.
“The volunteers visited different streets of the community to find out from residents whether they wanted to utilise the shelter, which was the Diamond Secondary School… No one chose to utilise the shelter, but it is still available for use,” relayed Lt. Col. Craig.
Residents are encouraged to call the CDC’s hotline for further assistance and to access the shelter; the numbers are 600-7500 and 623-1700.
Meanwhile, the Commission has begun the distribution of sanitisation and other relief supplies to the affected households.
“Residents of Diamond and Grove area, I would like them to look out because the volunteers and staff will be coming house-to-house to provide cleaning and sanitisation hampers to the families. They have already started and will continue throughout the day,” the Director-General explained.
A similar exercise is being conducted at Dantzig, Mahaicony.
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