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The threat of disease in the aftermath of the flooding and concerns about the integrity of the East Demerara Conservancy Dam are occupying the minds of those involved in the joint coordinating effort, even as the water slowly seeps away. And groups from the United Nations and the European Commission are trying to get the relevant parties to understand the gravity of some of those threats. Gomez Gerard is the team leader of a disaster contingent from the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC).

He told Stabroek News yesterday that the team is here to support the Government and related bodies in the flood relief effort in terms of assessment and coordination. "What we need to do is think of the population," he said during an interview with this newspaper.

But he said that his group is not actually doing the assessment but supporting the efforts of the related UN groups like the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Pan American Health Organi-sation (PAHO).
He said that the group is working in tandem with the Joint Operation Centre (JOC) and the Civil Defence Com-mission (CDC). "We need to inform the Government on what the international community is doing and also to tell that community what is happening here," Gerard said. Reports indicate that the water in many of the affected communities is going down by only inches per day and Chief Executive Office of the National Drainage and Irrigation Board Ravi Narine confirmed this yesterday.

He said that there is a lot of improvement along the main roads and in some of the housing areas but the water level at places such as Enterprise and some others are still very high, he said. On the threat to the East Demerara Water Conser-vancy, Narine said that the water level is dropping every day and this diminishes that threat. He called on the international communities to make available to him any information they may have on the integrity of the dam. He added that yesterday engineers visited the dam and reported that it was structurally sound. He said that UNDAC has commenced flyovers of the flooded areas and this will be done every two or three days. The first flight took place on Thursday. Gerard said that the team came though the United Nations system and on the request of the Guyana Government.

But he said that the assessment of the flyover has to be compiled with information from various other sources to be of any benefit. He said that this is so since it is hard for those in the plane to assess the number of inches that the water has receded by. The JOC has daily reconnaissance of the conservancies both by boat and aircraft. On the issue of evacuations, he said that there are too many variables that have to be considered when contemplating such a move. He said that his team would not want to pronounce on evacuation and believes that a careful analysis must be done of all the parameters. Gerard said that the fact that persons do not want to leave their homes though there is still heavy flooding is common worldwide and cited instances of natural disasters where houses were flattened but the owners refuse to budge.

He said that it was not UNDAC's job to give technical assessments of the flood but to measure the extent of the disaster on the population and to get this information to the international community. "Our function is to cross information coming from the various agencies and try to identify the gaps in the relief," Gerard said. He said that a WFP team is assessing the gaps in food deliveries reaching the various communities and communicating with the other agencies to fill those gaps.

He added that the UNDAC team has identified a focal point with the JOC and the CDC and there is "very good contact." He said that from his perspective, there is an open-door policy in the aid effort. "When we came, we were mobilised on request," he said. Gerard said that he has been part of the meetings that the JOC has been having over the last few days. Gerard believes that collaboration at the community level is also important, since members of the community would know where the people are.

According to Gerard, the extent of the disaster would go far beyond the floodwaters and the transition phase is important. He said that other teams attached to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) would be coming to help with more long term plans. On Thursday, President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that there will be a revamp of the drainage system and that a team comprising local and foreign engineers will be put together. The UNDAC Team Leader said that the authorities needed to understand the necessity of making a proper assessment to really know what the impact of the disaster is. He said that ECLAC has already been contacted.

He pointed out that the UNDAC team is also sourcing the requisite human resources, such as doctors and other professionals, to aid in the effort. Gerard said that the team is to bring in 20 boats in a few days time. Member of the PNCR Stanley Ming yesterday bemoaned the lack of boats to get the operation going at full speed. He said that 10 boats would be needed for Sophia alone, since there are about 1,000 people in each of the five fields. Ming said that at the very least, 200 aluminium flat bottom boats are needed for the operations. And this, he said, is just to get people in. There would be a need for the medical teams to use boats too, he said. "What is saving the people is many people have their private boats," he said. He said that in the case of an emergency situation, like an evacuation, then the need for boats would go up immensely, since that would involve thousands of people and the boats could only seat about six persons at a time.

In the interview, Gerard said too that for the small population and the number of people affected, the flooding is a major national disaster. He drew a comparison and said that if any disaster in his native France had affected 20% of that country's population, it would have been considered catastrophic. He said that the measure of a disaster is the percentage of people that it affects. He made the point that any disaster of this magnitude would pose difficulties to manage and in that light, the CDC and JOC are doing the best that they can.

Over-topping
According to Regional Engineer for Region Four, Shameer Samad, stemming from a visit to the East Demerara Conservancy, persons reported that there has been overtopping in 43 different locations. These locations, he said, are in Nabaclis, Victoria, Hope and Golden Grove.
According to Samad, four kokers on the East Demerara Conservancy Dam are believed to be undermined. Three of these are located at Lusignan, Mon Repos and Victoria.

[Editor's Note: First Published in Stanbroek News on January 29, 2005 as "Disease seen as key post-flood threat." Image (caption liquidified by GUS) by Kaieteur News.]