Precautionary measures are in place to avoid flooding – Agri. Minister.

 

Georgetown : Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy said precautionary measures were put in place for the heavy rainfall that the country experienced over the past 48hrs avoided flooding in many areas.
 Minister Ramsammy made this remark to media personnel as he conducted a visit of several of the pumping stations along the East Coast Demerara inclusive of Montrose, Triumph and Hope.
“I believe that given the amount of rainfall we had that one would have expected that we would have had much more problems than we had. Because of the preparatory work done in the past in preparation for situations like this, whilst we cannot avoid flooding entirely, I believe that we have reduced the impact of the heavy rainfall,” Dr Ramsammy said.
Dr. Ramsammy said that during January 28-29, parts of Guyana experienced more than 240 millimeters of rain. The New Amsterdam and the Corentyne areas had more than 171 millimeters whilst areas in Region 2 had in excess of 120 millimeters.  New Amsterdam and the Corentyne usually register about 180 milliliters for the month of January.
Given this amount of rain over the past two days, some communities in Regions 2, 3, 4 (particularly the East Coast) 5 and 6 were affected, however, the ministry has officials in these regions conducting hourly monitoring of the drainage systems. The ministry’s monitoring efforts are being supplemented by those at the level of the Local Government Ministry and other local organs including the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) and the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs).

The ministry is also being provided with hourly weather forecasts to guide its monitoring and intervention efforts, he said.