The rainy season has not begun
-- Met office


Guyana Chronicle
April 12, 2000


THE Hydromet office is predicting that more-than-normal rainfall will be experienced in Guyana when the wet season begins later this month.

A source at the office said that this is partially due to La Nina, a weather phenomenon.

According to the source, rains being experienced at the moment do not represent the beginning of the wet season. The source said dry days can be expected in between the rainy ones now. However, more rains can be expected during mid-month.

Rainfall recorded at Timehri between 08:00 hours and 20:00 hours (8 p.m.) from Monday to yesterday was 59.2 millimetres; Georgetown (for the same period), 74.3mm; New Amsterdam, 51.6mm and Lethem, 0.5mm.

Heavy rains yesterday caused the usual flooding in Georgetown. Several city streets were once again submerged and in many areas, yards were flooded as well.

The Mayor and City Council in a press release yesterday described the flooding as "slight" and said that heavy rains coincided with the high tide. Sluices had to be closed as a result until 12:30 hours when the tide began to fall, the press release said.

It added that the increasing amount of rubbish in canals and drains is a serious source of worry for the Mayor and City Council.

"Even when our kokers are opened, some sections are likely to remain under water, as the impediments would inhibit the free flow of water through the channels," the press release said.

City Hall has made another appeal to citizens to desist from throwing discarded items into the waterways and to be more environmentally friendly.

Essequibo also had flood problems as main canals overflowed in some areas in Region Two. This has caused severe flooding of some 6,000 acres of rice land with paddy to be harvested.

A release from the Regional Vice Chairman, Mr Vishnu Samaroo, said that farmers are losing crops since water has covered some ripe paddy grains.

Samaroo said a request made to the Agriculture Minister for diesel fuel to drain water off lands with three mobile pumps at Andrews, Perth and Lima sluices on a 24-hour basis, was granted. The Region will therefore benefit from 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel to push the massive drainage operation.

The Vice Chairman yesterday said that excessive rainfall continues in Region Two and the water continues to rise. Samaroo said the water level in the main canal is 30 feet and this is overflowing the embankments into canals and rice fields.

He said that the Regional administration was forced to release the excess water from the main canal via the Somerset and Berks Sluice. But farmers harvesting crops were affected, and as a result, the authority had to discontinue the exercise.

Heavy rains hit Guyana during January this year also and flood waters affected several villages causing persons to lose crops and livestock.

Rains then also caused a breach in the East Demerara Conservancy. The massive conservancy was overburdened with excess rainwater.

Rainfall in January reached 564 millimetres. This was exceeded only in 1950 when there was 831.1 millimetres of rainfall.