Long sections of the East Demerara Conservancy Dam show signs of weakness and without urgent remedial attention numerous nearby villages could be flooded once the rains come. Last week Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon said that the government had allocated $6M for remedial work on the dam.
Several sections of the structure between Cane Grove, Mahaica and Annandale have already collapsed or are likely to collapse unless repaired.
Stabroek News toured the dam with regional and neighbourhood democratic council officials on Monday and saw a number of the critical sections, some of which have almost completely disintegrated and are being held up by as little as three feet of earth.
In other areas it was observed that huge craters had developed in the dam which once the rainy season begins would threaten the dam's integrity.
The water level in the dam is currently low, according to Regional Chairman Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) Alan Monroe, but if it increases by approximately three feet, water would begin spilling into the backlands of ECD communities.
A section of the dam which was breached in 1968, showed signs of weakness as the backfilling had begun to shift away from the steel sheet revetment at the front.
Monroe, along with officials of the Cane Grove Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) could only express the hope that there would be no rain in the near future.
A resident of the Cane Grove community who said he had visited the dam a week ago acknowledged that the situation was worsening by the day as areas which recently only showed thin cracks, had since crumbled significantly.
At the site of the November 2001 breach, the soil behind the steel revetment was showing signs of significant movement.
Some of the most critical areas of the structure include a section behind Cane Grove and Anns Grove where there is practically no dam as most of it has crumbled away.
A 120-rod portion behind Victoria-Hope to Cove and John was also noted as feeble, and in need of immediate attention. There were also areas behind the ECD communities of Stratshey, Buxton/ Friendship and Annandale which were viewed as vulnerable.
Sections of the dam which remain intact are those which have overgrowth covering them which it was said assisted in holding the structure together.
The team also made mention of the steep gradient on both the front and rear of the dam while noting the presence of a nearby trench which the team suggested should have been some distance off.
Stabroek News was also reliably informed that GUYSUCO had expressed concern about the dam while requesting that urgent remedial attention be proceeded with. The company sees the weak dam as a threat to the industry since several of their fields are located close to some of the trouble spots.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon at a press briefing last week had said that government was in the process of addressing the dam's condition and had allotted $6M to commence remedial work.
The government, according to Luncheon, had directed the funding to strengthen the critical sections of the dam which had been identified as in need of urgent attention.
But he had said that there was no threat to farmers and residents in close proximity to the dam since the current water level in the conservancy was critically low.
But yesterday's visiting team appealed for immediate attention since there was no telling when the rains would begin.
The slippages Luncheon had said, had been identified through a series of aerial and land surveys.
Cabinet, Luncheon added, was subsequently advised about the dam's condition, particularly the many areas of slippage that were seen as a reflection of the dam's composition and the exceedingly long dry season.
He acknowledged that government had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on strengthening the dam essentially with the intention of securing increased capacity.
"But I think we would need to have technical inputs if indeed an attempt was being made to identify a current sense of slippages with some possible fear of project objectives being met in strengthening the dam and increasing the capacity of the dam to store water," he said.
When questioned about BK International's $150M contract which was supposed to have seen the rehabilitation of the structure as well as the raising of its level, Luncheon had said that BK had been contracted to do work on particular locations and specifically one location where the breach had taken place.
On November 3, 2001 a breach in the conservancy dam saw large areas of the Cane Grove community in Mahaica being inundated with several feet of water requiring a significant relief effort.
Government was forced to spend millions of dollars to repair the damage.
Luncheon at the briefing had said that the firm had met the costs associated with the repairs to the breach and government's expenditure on some amount of damage control and the damaged assets of the Cane Grove community.
The cabinet secretary however said that "the [current] slippages that have been documented during this period are unrelated to the contract entered into with the firm [BK] for remedial work and maintenance work in specific areas of the conservancy dam."
Luncheon, who was unable to attribute a cost to the remedial work had said that this would not be possible until the entire dam and all the areas of slippage had received the attention of the Drainage and Irrigation Board; only then could costs be linked with specific sites.