NDIA clearing canals in two West Bank Demerara communities
─ Canals 1 and 2 being cleaned
─ cleaners dealing with excessive garbage, dead animals in canal
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Residents and farmers in the West Bank Demerara (WBD) communities of Canal Number One and Canal Number Two are benefitting from drainage and irrigation works being undertaken by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
Extensive rainfall on Friday last had led to some minor flash flooding in the Canal Number One area. Since then, NDIA has initiated minor works to help with drainage of the water. George Gulliver, the contractor carrying out the works in both communities, shed some light on the current situation. “The Friday before, it was a rainy Friday; we had over two hours of rain in the morning, and in the afternoon, it was the same… the water was a bit high but the conservancy water was flowing over the dam into the drainage trenches and they aren’t built for so much water.”
Unfortunately, the water in those farms has to travel some seven miles to properly drain the land, so with these works, the rate of drainage would have increased considerably.
However, despite their good intentions, Gulliver and his men have been facing their fair share of challenges with getting the work done. These challenges were voiced by Gulliver’s foreman Ronald Patterson
“A lot of garbage is thrown in the trench. You can see a lot of zinc in the trench… we are trying to do our best because that’s what we do all the time. If you look closely at the edges, you will see parapet to parapet it is clean. But people continue to throw zinc and wood into the canal and it obstructs our work,” Patterson explained.
Despite these setbacks and interruptions, the foreman remains undaunted and is proud of his work. The exercise is expected to be finished within several days. However, the drainage of water from the farms at the back of the canal may take some time, due to the distance.