Flooding and Getting Dry

Posted February 16th. 2005 - by Eusi Kwayana.

We have a lot of new people involved in water control. In some cases they are innocently messing around. There is no way we can have successful water control from the top alone. The country people have had many battles with water control. They know the sea defence, the internal drainage trenches and canals, the kokers and the outfall channels, and the backdam. If the country wants to know whether the Conservancy dam is in order, ask the villages between Mahaica and Ogle. They will know. They can tell by the colour of the water and by how fast the flood water level rises.. It is hard to inspect dams after they have been flooded.

From experience,we know that if the rainfall figures are correct, it is clear that water is flowing or has been flowing through or over the Conservancy dam at various points. I cannot sit in "northern climes" and say that there are breaches. The community should examine the last works done by BK Tiwari on the dam and go from there. Because of family connections between contractor and the administration, there should be extra vigilance. It is not unfair to anyone. And it is fair to the people. Firing koker attendants may sound efficient and no nonsense, but what about justice, and what about higher up? What about conflicts of interest?

No one who knows East Coast water conditions believes that the Lamaha Conservancy was not a factor.

Water control needs the cooperation and knowledge of engineers, the farmers,fishermen,those whose livelihood depends on tiwater, the residents, the drainage workers, the pumping station operators , and the sugar estate officials. Unless they compare notes, there will be no real sense of the situation. Often when we think there is a drainage pump it has not worked for years. When we look at a koker, we have to ask whether it is working or allowed to work or whether silt has locked it in. The present government has not been able to overturn the "new face" culture, which it inherited.

At times like this we need all means of drainage to be employed. We need to call in the old hands. These are the pumps, and the outfall channels on coast and bank. The places affected on the West Coast seem to suggest trouble at the Boerasire Conservancy dam. Why was the government taken by surprise? One reason can be that, as a cost-saving measure, responding to IMF and others, they began some practices decades ago like failing to engage the required number of rangers. Some rangers complained to Rupert Roopnaraine and me in our coastal water watches that no one any longer reads their reports especially on the sea defences. We need constant walks by these sea defence and back dam rangers to report on the quality of the dams and the sea defences. (A ranger is one who ranges, by walking along a route looking for what is out of order or beginning to fail).

Government departments used to have, and members of the public could have bought the Harbour master's TIDE TABLES forecasting the tides for the forthcoming year. Even in recent times some media would use that source to warn about spring tides and other tidal changes. Fishermen and farmers are good forecasters of weather. They understand the effect of the phases of the moon too. Many think these connections are superstitions.

Remedies

According to Mr. Allan Munroe, Chairman of Region Four Regional Development Council (RDC), the Government made drastic cuts in the allocation for trench cleaning applied for. The Minister confirmed his complaint. Trench cleaning can be estimated rather accurately in advance if cleaning is regular. When a round of cleaning is not done, the next round is more expensive. Even though this vote has always been a source of "pool and buss" (collect and share) the government cannot solve the problems by starving drainage.

What are the means of drainage? They are gravity drainage and mechanical drainage. During its term the former government "cleverly" closed up several drainage canals and out-fall sluices because where two were not far apart they appeared to the new comers to be duplicating each other

1. Trenches must be cleaned in order to allow the flow of water otherwise there will be "bush stop-offs" keeping the water from flowing.

2. With water on the land higher that the ocean at low tide, it is time to dig and flush out the outfall channels to allow for outflow of water. There are rural arts in doing the clearing without machines when the silt has not hardened. Machines are normally a great help.

3. Raise the dams of the "basins" near the sea wall to create a small "conservancy". From this, the pumps can eject water over the sea wall at high tide.

4. Sea defence people know about a first and a second line of defence. We should examine whether there can be an irregular second line of defence against conservancy dam flooding, both on the East Coast and the West Coast. Land surveyors and local people can do the investigation.

5.A balance must be found between sea defence and gravity drainage. Years ago the wisdom was to alter the foreshore by protecting the sea walls with "Boulder walls" on the foreshore to break the force of the waves.This tended to make the outfall channels less and less open.The Buxton-Friendship outfall area should be an object lesson for careful study.Well intended .Orders from above closed down the outfall sluice and put in its place a quaint metal contraption called a "neck" guaranteed to expel water during the high tides. To us ,the untrained.it lacked capacity.

Nigel Westmaas has written an excellent and informative article on flood history More recent major floods affecting the East Coast took place during the years of non-elected government. In 1950-1951 many of us passed Old Year's Night opening a drainage koker which the Drainage Board had ordered closed. Our village had been under about two feet of water in some places for 21 days. The Chair of the Drainage Board was the head of Bookers.

In 1934, parts of the East Coast had the biggest flood before the present. It was caused by breaches in the Conservancy dam. We went to bed dry one Sunday night and work up "under water" There were no elected governments (ministers) then. It caused heavy loss of livestock.

Work

The making of boats of wood and of plastic material should be done on as vast a scale as possible. The items are not very costly. This will spread work and income in each community and they can be useful during and after the flood. This will allow some self-respect to grow.

Long term

There need to be long term plans for the water control of the coastlands. The sugar estates have best maintained their drainage systems, as they handle large revenues and must have water control to earn them. I have insisted since the fifties that villages cannot pay their way with modern roads and expensive infra structure.Two English experts who came to Guyana to promote the Marshall (Local Government) Plan did not understand the local needs. During a meeting with village leaders and councilors, one after the other rose to speak and complained of drainage and irrigation. As they tried to focus us on "taxable capacity" and "viable units", one expert leaned toward the other and whispered "They got water on the brain". For years many rural people were seen as having water on the brain because we talked so much of drainage and irrigation and trench cleaning,even in parliament.

Many officials of today, before this flood would be inclined to think that the water control problem had gone out of fashion. There should be panel on radio and TV-all stations, including CNS, at once, discussing cause and remedy of the current flood. It should be a full discussion.It should include

After World War II, it was an English engineering consultant, Mr. Hutchinson, who posed the water control question in a thorough way warning against piece meal solutions. He had briefed Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who was an elected member in the pre -1953 Legislative Council. The sugar industry did not like his plans and he left. He declined to return at the invitation of the elected ministers of the PPP after 1953. Two sworn land surveyors whom I knew worked close to him and he explained his ideas to them. They ware Mr. Wilson Harris, the famous writer and Mr. Sidney Singh, still in Guyana and I hope available. There may be others.Are there any surviving students of the late Mr Fred Poole, the self educated unschooled genius of heavy engineering and earthworks?

The few remaining older farmers and drainage workers should be invited to appear on a TV and radio panel for a reflection and discussion of the present flood. Perhaps they and the younger replacements should talk together. This is a culture vital to living on the coast just as forest culture is vital to most Amerindians.

It was good to see the name of R.F Comacho in a "Full Story". He has the feel of the changing East Coast water control issues, from trench and pumping stations to outfall channels, to internal drainage trenches, back to the drawing boards. An editorial treated the conservancy dam as mud dykes. From what I have seen on the East Coast the dam is a pegasse dam and that is one of the problems. Pegasse is porous and is less reliable as a dam than mud. The old sea dams were made of alluvial clays and seepage was not a major problem. The idea of raising the pegasse dam to contain conservancy water is one engineers can test. I was glad to see a reference the "institutional memory" of the East Demerara Water Conservancy. This is a factor that governments tend to ignore in most ministries. I once heard stories of how it was destroyed in the Ministry of Information and in Foreign Affairs after a change of government. Engineers can hardly support this attitude.

Any new overall approach to the water control system must, repeat must, involve people of the soil who know what used to happen on the ground, in every place, what is happening now, and what ought to happen. This is a vital resource for the engineers.