With the City of Georgetown still facing flash floods whenever it rains, a local engineer is challenging the Georgetown Mayor and City Council to adopt an automatic system to manage the sluices.
In a recent presentation to the Georgetown City Council, local engineer, Patrice Jacobs explained that the city is drained by gravity for the most part, with the exception of a small number of areas that are drained using pumps.
“The gravity system as we know it has done its best while it lasted but as you all know as we continue to evolve as city, we find that the drainage system is woefully inadequate, and as such a solution is being proposed to assist in that regard so we can have better results,” Jacobs told the Council.
Jacobs said the gravity system is “under extreme pressure” as a result of rising sea level, which is seen as one of the effects of global warming.
“This situation will not change, and so, the gravity system would be under extreme pressure if we continue to use the same system as the sea level continues to rise,” he said.
He explained that a study on the city revealed that it has 10 sluices and 12 pumps with a total of 28.5 km² of catchment area.
The study also revealed that the city’s drainage system was capable of draining 5.5 mm of rainfall per hour. However, Jacobs said just last February, 24.2mm of rainfall was recorded.
He said while the pumps assist, there are limitations.
Against that backdrop, the engineer has proposed the use of an Automatic Sluice Gates, which will open automatically, seal automatically and operate throughout the day and respond to extreme conditions including flash flooding
“It is going to open automatically, it doesn’t require manual interface, and it is going to close automatically with a seal, and it is going to run 24/7 meaning it is always on standby to respond to extreme conditions – flash floods…So, you wouldn’t lose 15 minutes because an attendant was asleep or he was cooking or it was raining or he was drunk. 0:08:41,” he said.
The automatic system would come at a cost, but nothing compared to the millions being spent to tackle the after effects of flooding, Mr. Jacobs explained.
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