The Guyana Flood Website 

  Report for Friday February 11th 2005 

Report for Friday February 11th: The water is slowly receding out of villages on the East Coast, all of the villages up to Mon Repos have basically dried off. There is still some amount of floodwater in Mon Repos but there has been some level of improvement, I saw residents of some of the houses along the Mon Repos main road staring to clean out their yards after almost 4 weeks of being totally flooded out. The water level in Good Hope had dropped off a bit but many yards still had some 10 inches of floodwater. Lusignan was still with some 11 inches of floodwater and some roads in Buxton and Annandale were finally starting to show, the yards there still had some 10 inches of water. We reported yesterday that Mahaica residents had some level of flooding  but when we visited at about 3pm, the floodwater had been pumped off of the front lands, reports indicate that the farmlands at the back were still flooded out. The number of persons turning up at the various hospitals in Georgetown with symptoms similar to that of Leptospirosis has increased, the frail overworked medical system here in Guyana is hard pressed to handle the numerous complaints. Bryan Mackintosh

 We caught up with Dr. Suresh Narine and a team of volunteers from Lusignan. Dr. Narine is a Professor from the University of Alberta, and the President of the Association of Caribbean Hindus of Alberta (ACHA).  ACHA has raised funds from the wider Edmonton Community, including its own members and students, staff and faculty of the University of Alberta, and staff at Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, as well as concerned Guyanese and well-wishers. Dr. Narine brought these funds down to Guyana to try to bring some relief, both in terms of medical and other humanitarian Aid.  In the meantime, additional funding efforts in Edmonton are continuing, with Dr. Narine providing information back to the community, through Mr. Brian Ally; an Edmonton based Guyanese who is part of a larger fundraising effort by Guyanese and well-wishers in Edmonton and Alberta.  In addition to medical aid provided to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Narine and a local team has been distributing sanitization materials and doxycycline antibiotics to the communities hardest hit on the east coast.  On Friday, they distributed to some 1000 families in Better Hope. They began in the poorer areas of the Better Hope squatting area, and worked their way North.  Members of the local Better Hope Mandir and also members from the Ramnavmi Committee helped to distribute the items.  CGX (oil drilling company), DDL, Courtney Benn Construction, Komal Singh, Tarachandra Khelawan are all companies and individuals who have helped with donations of vehicles, time, equipment, etc., in addition to the Ramnavmi Committee and also the members of the Better Hope Mandir. The first set of photos are from the distribution of the above mentioned items.

The Lusignan Mandir was built a few feet above ground and managed to escape the floodwater	Dr. Suresh Narine with volunteers from the Lusignan Mandir	A closer shot of some of the volunteers	Just some of the items to be distributed to flood victims	Loading one of the support vehicles up
Dr. Narine making sure that everything is set and ready	Right, this one is done, next!!	Another vehicle is loaded	Checking the list to make sure that everything is loaded	Dr. Suresh Narine leading his team into Better Hope North
Dr. Narine speaking to villagers of Better Hope North	Listening and understanding the plight of the people better.	Dr. Narine and team coming out for more supplies	One of Dr. Narine's vehicle in Better Hope	One of the support vehicles slowed up because of  a puncture.

  Report for Saturday February 12th 2005 

We are just about to complete week number four of this devastating flood, four weeks of pure agony, The flooding which started on January 16th has been here one long agonising month, in its wake are shattered lives, people who worked so hard to build their dreams only to watched it all float away in a matter of hours.

As with everything that happens, someone is likely to be blamed, but whose fault is it that caused the flooding, is it the fault of the ordinary citizens who pay their taxes because according to the advertisement on national radio, you tax dollars will go toward maintaining of the country's infrastructure, well the taxes were paid and still the infrastructure was not taken care of. It is the fault of the NDC's who are supposed to make sure that the kokers and the canals are kept clean or maybe they will blame the flooding on the citizens who did not remember to burn or bury their garbage last month because the NDC has forgotten for a long time now that they are supposed to collect garbage at least once a week. Is it the fault of the government, should the Ministry of Works and Hydraulics not have inspectors whose duty it should be to make sure that the kokers are in working order? Is the flooding then the fault of Ravi Narine, as head of the drainage and irrigation board, is he not supposed to know that most of the kokers and the canal have been neglected and were not in working order?

The blame has to de directed somewhere and to someone and we the citizens of this country must insist that the incompetent NDCs be replaced and the future head of the drainage and irrigation board must be told in no uncertain words that the time has come to put our drainage system in order and it must be done as soon as possible. Bryan Mackintosh

Piles of garbage on Graham Road in Plaisance waiting to be picked up	Mon Repos	The Mon Repos Primary school still with water	Mon Repos	Mon Repos
Good Hope at the back of IEL	Good Hope	Good Hope housing scheme	6' of water still in Good Hope housing scheme	Non Pariel
Non Pariel	Non Pariel	Attempting to clean up in Non Pariel	Lusignan railway	Lusignan ground still under water
We saw this car coming out of Lusignan north	Finally we can see the bridge here in Lusignan south	Annandale		Buxton
Buxton	Buxton	Buxton	Buxton	Strathspey
Strathspey school still under water	Strathspey	Strathspey	A black water tank, buckets, no water and 3 angry Strathspey residents	Strathspey
This Strathspey man getting grass for his animals to eat	Haslinton	Haslinton	Haslinton still had water up to this afternoon	Enmore still has a bit of water in certain parts
Horses in Enmore looking for something to eat	This Mongoose survived the floodwater in Enmore	Enmore kids are finally able to ride their bicycles after 4 long weeks of flooding	Enmore	Enmore
This Enmore family heading home	The junction at the Embankment highway at Enmore	Enmore kids burning garbage on the Embankment highway	Bare Root/Bachelors Adventure	This Bare root resident still has to walk out of his yard in water
Another Bare root resident braves the water in his yard	Bare Root	Bare Root	Non Pariel	Non Pariel residents receiving hampers
PPP Parliamentarian Kemraj Ramjattan out on a private hamper distribution project	Can you imagine how tough is has been for the last month for this poor family?	This house in Enterprise was lucky to be just out of the water's reach	Lusignan North on the main road	Lusignan North on the main road
Horses looking for something to eat even if its underwater in Good Hope North	The Ramkishun's house still with some amount of water in the yard at Good Hope	Our water mark in Good Hope showing signs of improvement	Residents in Mon Repos standing where it was flooded just days ago	This boat has now outlasted its usefulness at least in Mon Repos