With the rainy season settling in, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council is taking stock of all public infrastructure projects, in particular road and bridge projects, to ensure that they do not contribute to flooding in the capital city of Georgetown.
During Monday’s statutory meeting, Mayor Alfred Mentore ordered the City Engineer Colvern Venture to compile a detailed report on the status of all public infrastructure projects ongoing within the 15 constituencies of the city.
Mentore said many of the projects are incomplete, and can pose a threat to the city’s drainage network.
“Plenty of these projects like they start and the contractor drop out because the projects start, there are men digging up and doing a whole host of things, even blocking off major canals and those canals are compromised at this time, and I am not seeing the contractors, who are supposed to be doing the jobs,” the City Mayor explained.
It was noted that public projects are being executed by the Government, and the Council will not take the blame should flooding occur as a result of clogged drains and canals caused by incomplete project.
“Me ain’t gunna take the blame as the mayor and I don’t believe councillors will take the blame when rain start fall and the people house start flooding out because the water wouldn’t be going anywhere. I have passed in many areas in South, in North and East and even in my constituency in Lamaha Street. I saw a little rain fall the other day, people done calling, and that was no rain, that was a little drizzle,” Mayor Mentore said.
He told the Council it is important to get a status report on the projects, and the list of the drains that have been compromised. He emphasized that a thorough analysis is required.
In supporting the call for a status report on the projects, Deputy Mayor Denise Miller told the Council that she is the victim of an incomplete project that has now resulted in the main drainage network in the area being blocked.
“My yard is under water as the deputy mayor, and I asked the engineer kindly look into the matter…to see what is happening in the Tucville main area. They started the drain there and they blocked off he main canal, the main canal so the water is circling in Tucville Terrace. Yesterday, the men came to me, they said deputy mayor we will break this thing through because people are suffering,” the Deputy Mayor explained.
She said in addition to causing flooding in the area, the stagnant water poses a health threat to those living in the area.
“The water is dark, it is smelly, it is a mixture of drainage pipe water and the sewage system and it is in everybody’s yard. People are saying they now have to expense themselves to buy chemical. This is something that I saw developing. I mentioned it to the engineer, probably, I should have gone to the Town Clerk. I am suffering, if you come to my yard, my paling is undermined, the whole paling is collapsing because the water compromised the paling…I am suffering terribly in my yard, mosquitoes like hell in the night and day,” Miller further explained.
Other councillors expressed disappointment in the manner in which the projects are being executed in a haphazard manner, and without any consultation with the Georgetown.
One councillor opined that the data on the ongoing projects should have been readily available, and the Council should not be made to go looking. The City Mayor said the Council has repeatedly requested the information, but to no avail.
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