KINGSTON - A taskforce to oversee the operations and overall functions of the drainage and irrigation system in Guyana and to come up with a feasible long-term plan will soon commence its work, as the members have already been identified.
“This taskforce will be supported by an administrative secretariat which has already been established and working for the last three weeks as the resource team who will do all the gathering of information, doing all the reports on the flooding situation in Guyana. They will be the persons executing the technical work on behalf of the commissioners,” disclosed Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.
Minister Patterson was at the time updating media operatives on Government’s long-term initiative to deal flooding He was at yesterday’s post-cabinet media briefing held at the Ministry of the Presidency on July 22, 2015.
During this engagement the Minister pointed out that the taskforce will be headed by Major General Rt’d Joe Singh and will include Charles Sohan, Malcomn Ally, Egbert Carter, Andrew Bishop, Stanley Ming, Joseph Holder, Charles Ceres and Dr. David Singh. Representatives from the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers (GAPE), the Private Sector, the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and various ministries will also be included.
It should also be noted that Government has been offered support from the Netherlands in the form of a technical team to assist the taskforce. This offer is pending approval by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Justifying his request of six month for the first preliminary report of the taskforce to be ready, Minister Patterson explained, “the reason I have asked for six months is because we would like to look at what’s happening and we would like to project for example Georgetown, where it’s going to be in fifteen to twenty years and make provisions for that now.”
The Public Infrastructure Minister pointed out that the Government is not interested in any band-aid solution to the problem.
“The intention is to provide a holistic approach which we can act on. It is no use for us to simply do a band-aid solution by cleaning drainage or repairing sluices and things like that…The problem is much bigger than that, we have to give ourselves the time to study it and come up with a feasible plan including financing it,” he said.
Recent initiatives undertaken by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure have seen tremendous improvements to the drainage system in the city and its environs. Most areas are reporting that water is now running off at a much quicker rate. While some very low-lying areas are affected more easily, there are efforts being made to bring a permanent solution to the problem.
