Friday 28, January-2005 from Tim Slinger
in Guyana
GUYANA’S President Bharrat Jagdeo has issued an SOS to Barbados
and the rest of the Caribbean. Guyana needs
doctors urgently he told the WEEKEND
NATION, yesterday.
More than 120 000 people on the East Coast of Guyana remained
under water siege yesterday for the 11th straight day.
And authorities fear an outbreak of disease in these communities
from the worst flooding in Guyana in over 100 years.
Health officials have already identified signs of disease from the
record flooding, with long lines of Guyanese being treated at a
number of makeshift medical centres, set up along the heavily congested
Demerara/Mahaica districts.
Doctors heading medical teams were busy yesterday treating
several hundred of those who had fallen to illnesses like skin disease,
diarrhoea, influenza and the common cold.
While floodwaters subsided in the capital Georgetown, several of the East
Coast districts were still battling with water in some cases as much as
seven feet deep.
“I am concerned about the solid waste disposal as most of it has
gotten caught up (contaminated) with the water and I fear that later on
we could have some serious problems,” a worried Dr Ruth Quaicoe
told the Nation News
As
floodwaters continue to inundate Guyana, residents of Buxton on the East
Coast have fled their homes and taken to higher, drier ground.
As floodwaters continue to inundate Guyana, residents of Buxton on the
East Coast have fled their homes and taken to higher, drier ground.
Temporary tent settlements such as this have sprung up along safe, higher
roadsides, and like the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark, man and beast
are living side by side in a desperate fight for survival.
As unseasonal rains continue to drench the low-lying country, beleaguered
Guyanese (like this man who was marooned on bricks in the middle of a
street in Buxton for nearly two days) might be wondering if, as in the
biblical tale, the rains will fall for 40 days and nights. Compliments of the Nation News
UREGENT APPEAL FROM THE GCIFR, a non-governmental
organization that has been focusing on current and long-term measures
to alleviate the effects of the flood and its impact on the affected
population.
The GCIF has a working relationship with the Guyana
government, non-governmental and international organizations as well
as network with affected communities through their representatives.
The Mattress Project of the Guyana Citizens Initiative
for Flood Relief (GCIFR) began on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 after
community groups, working with affected residents, identified mattresses
as one of the items urgently needed.
A fact-finding mission by members of the GCIFR
found that many residents were either forced to discard their mattresses
soaked with polluted flooded waters or at best wash and use them
again.
